Missions  and  peadersMp 


BV  2091  .W4  1915 
White,  J.  Campbell. 
Missions  and  leadership 


Missions  and  Leadership 


BY 


J.  CAMPBELL  WHITE,  M.  A.,  LL.  D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  WOOSTER, 
AT  WOOSTER,   OHIO,  U.   S.   A. 


Being  the  Smythe  Lectures  for  1915-1916 
of  the   Columbia   Theological   Seminary- 
Columbia,  S.  C. 


WoosTER,   Ohio 

The  Collier  Printing  Company, 

1915 


COPYRIGHT,    1915,    BY 

J.    CAMPBELL   WHITE 

ENTERED   AT    STATIONERS    HALL 
LONDON,     1915 


To  my  Mother 
and  my  "Wife 
representing  the 
two  gentlest  and 
most  powerful 
human  forces  in 
the  life  of  men* 


Preface 

Since  leaving  College  in  1890  my  work  has 
been  related  directly  to  the  problems  of  missions. 
Ten  years'  residence  in  Calcutta,  India,  provided 
a  good  base-line  for  the  study  of  the  situation  at 
the  front.  The  past  twelve  years  of  travel 
throughout  the  United  States  and  Canada  trying 
to  enlist  the  men  of  all  churches  seriously  in  the 
work  of  Missions  has  given  me  a  general  ac- 
quaintance with  some  vital  needs  of  the  home 
churches.  I  have  embodied  in  the  following 
chapters  my  chief  observations  and  results  of 
experience  during  the  past  twenty-five  years. 

I  feel  grateful  to  the  Columbia  Theological 
Seminary,  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  for 
leading  me  to  put  these  convictions  into  type,  by 
inviting  me  to  give  the  Smythe  Lectures  for 
1915-16. 

J.  CAMPBELL  WHITE. 

Wooster,  Ohio,  October,  1915. 


The  Decisive  Decade  of  Missions 

The  Great  Commission  is  the  only  commis- 
sion. The  Church  has  no  other  business.  The 
world-field  is  the  only  field.  Anything  less  is 
inadequate  as  the  field  of  Christ  or  of  His  Church 
or  of  any  disciple  of  His.  The  law  of  Chris- 
tianity is  propagate  or  deteriorate;  expand  or 
perish. 

The  first  work  and  the  chief  work  of  the 
whole  Church  is  to  give  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
world.  "The  world  is  redeemed,  but  it  does  not 
know  it."  And  it  never  will  know  until  the 
Church  publishes  the  good  news  everywhere 
through  living  witnesses.  Christ  will  never 
change  His  plan.  He  will  wait  until  His  fol- 
lowers fulfil  His  expectations.  "This  gospel  of 
the  Kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 
world,  for  a  testimony  unto  all  the  nations;  and 
then  shall  the  end  come."  Matt.  24:14. 

The  one  great  event  toward  which  all  history 
is  unfolding  and  upon  which  all  the  universe  is 
waiting  is  the  world-wide  propagation  of  the 
Christian  evangel.  The  Steel  Ttust  and  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  and  all  other  aggrega- 
tions of  capital  and  all  human  governments  are 
but  as  children's  toys  compared  with  the  infinite 
significance  of  the  eternal  Kingdom  which  Jesus 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

Christ  is  founding  in  the  hearts  of  His  disciples. 

The  Church  of  our  day  is  well  able  to  carry 
out  literally  the  marching  orders  of  her  Lord  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  The  world 
is  open,  accessible  and  responsive.  The  Church 
has  workers  and  funds  in  super-abundance  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  task.  The  promise  of 
Christ's  presence  with  His  ambassadors  is  abso- 
lute. There  is  no  power  on  earth  or  in  hell  that 
could  withstand  an  obedient  Church  in  its  speedy 
occupation  and  evangelization  of  the  world. 

We  are  living  now  at  the  cross-roads  of 
human  history.  "The  next  ten  years,"  declared 
the  World  Missionary  Conference  at  Edinburgh 
in  1910,  *'may  be  of  more  critical  importance  in 
determining  the  spiritual  evolution  of  mankind, 
than  many  centuries  of  ordinary  experience." 
Not  only  could  many  millions  of  converts  be  won 
for  Christ  in  this  decisive  decade  of  Christian 
missions,  but  the  tide  can  be  turned  toward 
Christ  in  whole  nations,  and  in  some  entire  non- 
Christian  systems  of  religion,  if  the  present  op- 
portunity is  seized  and  used. 

And  if  this  world-program  of  Christianity  is 
carried  out,  it  will  bring  such  enrichment  to  the 
churches  of  Christian  lands  as  can  never  come 
in  any  other  way.  The  resources  of  God  are 
promised  in  their  fulness  only  to  those  who  un- 
dertake the  program  of  God  in  its  wholeness. 
The  chief  reason  why  the  Apostolic  Church  was 
so  successful  was  that  it  started  out  to  fill  the 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

world  with  the  good  news  of  the  Saviour.  They 
experienced  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  ''Ye 
shall  receive  power,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
come  upon  you;  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses 
both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria 
and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  Acts 
1:8.  But  no  one  can  have  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promise  unless  he  undertakes  the  corresponding 
task. 

Judaism  failed  nationally  because  it  failed 
universally.  Any  nation  will  fail  sooner  or 
later  unless  it  fulfills  its  mission  to  mankind. 
President  Wilson  truly  says  that  the  mission  of 
the  nation  is  the  service  of  the  race.  Selfishness 
and  self-centeredness  in  a  nation,  no  less  than  in 
an  individual,  will  lead  inevitably  to  decline  and 
ruin.  The  only  chance  that  any  nation  has  of 
perpetuity  is  that  it  fulfill  its  destiny  as  a  con- 
structive factor  in  world-progress. 

Never  before  in  human  history  have  such 
vast  populations  been  in  a  state  of  rapid  evolu- 
tion,— educational,  industrial,  social  and  spirit- 
ual,— as  at  this  hour.  Three-quarters  of  human- 
ity is  in  unrest.  When  nations  are  in  transition 
is  the  time  to  give  them  impulse  in  the  right 
direction.  It  is  impossible  to  switch  a  motion- 
less engine,  but  one  that  is  moving  may  readily 
be  directed. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  questions  that  young 
men  and  women  are  now  asking  of  missionary 
leaders  is  this:   "What  is  the  very  neediest  field? 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

I  am  putting  my  life  into  missions  and  I  want  to 
go  to  the  field  that  needs  me  worst." 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  positive  answer  to 
this  question.  So  great  and  so  general  is  the 
present  need  and  crisis  that  it  would  be  safe  to 
undertake  the  argument  for  any  one  of  six  of  the 
main  sections  of  the  non-Christian  world  as  the 
most  critical  field;  viz.,  1.  Latin  America, 
2.  Africa,  3.  India,  4.  The  Moslem  world,  5.  Japan 
and  Korea,  6.  China.  Let  us  pass  these  in  rapid 
review  that  we  may  see  how  readily  a  case  could 
be  made  for  any  one  of  them  as  the  neediest  field 
of  all. 

1.  Latin  America,  including  Mexico,  Central 
America,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  South  America, 
has  a  population  of  about  seventy  millions.  The 
terrible  social  and  intellectual  condition  of  this 
total  mass  of  human  beings  may  be  summarized 
in  two  sentences.  Far  more  than  half  of  these 
seventy  millions  of  people  were  born  out  of  wed- 
lock. Far  more  than  half  of  them  are  absolutely 
illiterate.  In  the  presence  of  undisputed  facts 
like  these,  further  argument  is  unnecessary  to 
prove  their  desperate  need  of  vital  Christianity. 

Into  these  fields  all  Protestant  Churches  com- 
bined have  sent  531  ordained  missionaries,  or  an 
average  of  one  to  131,000  of  the  population. 
Each  one  of  these  missionaries  has  a  field  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  times  the  size,  of  the  aver- 
age parish  of  ordained  ministers  in  the  United 
States,    in    addition    to    the    unspeakably    more 

10 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

difficult  conditions  of  Christian  work  in  Latin 
America  or  in  any  non-Christian  land. 

There  is  widespread  and  bitter  revolt  in  Latin 
America  against  the  religious  formalism  which 
leaves  the  heart  unfed  and  the  life  unre- 
deemed. The  whole  continent  is  also  in  the 
midst  of  an  unprecedented  industrial  develop- 
ment. These  people  are  dependent  almost 
wholly  on  the  efforts  of  the  churches  of  North 
America.  Certainly  Latin  America  has  strong 
claim  to  be  listed  among  the  neediest  of  mission 
fields. 

2.  Africa  has  a  little  more  than  twice  the  pop- 
ulation of  Latin  America, — about  150  millions. 
While  almost  the  whole  of  Africa  is  desperately 
needy,  the  outstanding  fact  from  a  missionary 
view-point  is  the  advance  and  the  peril  of 
Mohammedanism.  One-third  of  the  entire  pop- 
ulation of  the  Dark  Continent  are  in  danger  of 
being  made  Moslems  through  the  efforts  of 
Mohammedan  traders  and  missionaries.  They 
would  then  be  many  times  mgre  difficult  to  reach 
than  they  are  in  their  simple  paganism.  Nothing 
but  a  great  Christian  advance  can  avert  this 
threatened  calamity.  To  meet  this  opportunity 
the  total  missionary  forces  in  Africa  should  be 
at  least  doubled  at  the  earliest  possible  date.  It 
is  said  that  there  are  seventy  millions  of  people 
in  the  Dark  Continent  that  are  not  even  included 
in  the  plans  of  any  missionary  agency.  If 
you    choose    Africa    as    the    neediest    field    your 

11 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

decision   is  not  likely  to  be   seriously  disputed. 

3.  While  Africa  has  twice  the  population  of 
Latin  America,  India  in  turn  has  more  than 
twice  the  population  of  Africa, — or  a  total  of 
over  315  millions.  As  has  often  been  stated, 
there  are  so  many  villages  in  India, — averaging 
nearly  400  persons  each, — that  if  Christ  had 
begun  to  visit  them  when  He  began  his  public 
ministry  and  had  visited  one  village  each  day 
since  that  time,  it  would  still  take  Him  about 
fifty  more  years  to  visit  them  all  once. 

When  the  last  government  census  was  taken 
in  India  there  was  widespread  alarm  on  the  part 
of  non-Christian  leaders  at  the  rapid  spread  of 
Christianity.  The  census  returns  show  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  a  steady  increase  in  the 
number  of  Christians.  Travancore  had  an  in- 
crease of  population  of  16%  during  the  decade, 
while  Christians  increased  by  30% ;  just  one- 
quarter  of  the  people  are  now  Christians.  In 
Cochin,  likewise,  they  form  one  quarter  of  the 
population;  in  the  Punjab,  though  there  was  a 
decrease  in  the  general  population  of  half  a 
million,  the  Christians  increased  over  100%. 
In  the  Central  Provinces,  Hindus  show  an  in- 
crease of  16%;  Mohammedans,  13%;  Animists, 
30%;  Christians,  169%;  in  the  United  Prov- 
inces, the  Christians  increased  by  75%.  Com- 
menting on  the  census  returns,  'The  Indian 
Messenger,"  a  Hindu  paper,  says:  '*So  there  is  a 
marked  general  increase  of  Christians  all  over 

12 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

the  country,  and  this  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  better 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  amongst  our  own 
countrymen.  The  depressed  classes  and  the  hill 
tribes  are  for  social  emancipation  running  into 
Christianity's  arms.  Christian  missionaries  are 
forestalling  us  in  this  most  fruitful  field.  Be- 
fore the  indigenous  reformers  can  make  ready 
to  take  up  the  work  they  will  have  finished 
bringing  the  depressed  into  the  Christian  fold. 
This  enthusiasm  is  no  doubt  most  creditable  to 
them.  But  do  our  Hindu  countrymen,  who  are 
so  lukewarm  about  the  depressed  classes  mis- 
sions realize  what  the  Christianization  of  the 
masses  means?  It  means  in  no  small  measure 
the  wiping  out  of  the  hoary  Hindu  civilization. 
//  the  apathy  of  the  Hindus  continues,  the  Chris- 
tianization of  India  is  only  a  question  of  time." 

This  would  be  regarded  by  many  people  as 
an  exaggeration  if  uttered  by  a  missionary. 
What  shall  be  said  of  it  when  it  comes  from  one 
of  the  most  influential  Hindu  editors? 

There  are  about  sixty  millions  of  these  ''de- 
pressed classes"  in  India.  For  several  years 
past  they  have  been  applying  for  baptism  faster 
than  the  missionaries  with  their  small  force  have 
felt  justified  in  receiving  them.  Many  millions 
of  them  can  be  led  to  Christ,  if  workers  are 
provided. 

As  a  sample  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
Church  among  these  low-caste  people,  the  follow- 
ing illustration  is  worthy  of  note: 

13 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

A  mission  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
of  North  America  was  founded  at  Sialkot,  Pun- 
jab, India,  in  1855.  The  first  convert  was  in 
1857.  The  present  foreign  mission  force  con- 
sists of  about  100  missionaries. 

Christian  Community,  1875 ....         153 

Christian  Community,  1895 9,912 

Christian  Community,  1914....    54,000 

One  of  the  most  experienced  of  the  mission- 
aries in  this  field  says:  **In  our  district  we  have 
about  300,000  Chuhras.  From  among  these  we 
have  definite  requests  from  thousands  for  in- 
struction, looking  to  baptism  and  reception  into 
the  Church.  I  think  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  if  we  had  the  missionary  force,  within  a 
decade  we  might  hope  to  have  the  great  mass  of 
these  people  instructed  and  received  into  the 
Church.  To  me  the  possibilities  among  these 
'untouchable'  people  are  not  more  startling  than 
the  opportunities  among  the  caste  people,  with 
their  minds  so  wonderfully  opening  to  the  appeal 
of  the  gospel,  and  with  so  many  of  them  not  only 
passively  receptive  but  actually  inquiring  con- 
cerning Christianity  and  the  Christ,  and  with 
such  numbers  already  secret  believers."  An- 
other missionary  of  this  district  says  that  the 
public  instruction  of  these  despised  low-caste 
people  in  the  principles  and  truths  of  Christian- 
ity has  had  a  marvelous  preparatory  effect  on 
vast     numbers    of     higher     caste     Hindus     and 

14 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

Moslems  who  have  been  present  as  listeners 
while  this  work  was  being  carried  on,  as  most  of 
it  is  done,  in  the  open  air. 

Another  Illustration  of  Wonderful  Growth 

The  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  India  began  with  the  arrival  of  Dr.  William 
Butler,  on  the  25th  of  September,  1856.  At  the 
first  meeting  for  organization  of  the  India  Meth- 
odist Mission,  in  1859,  Rev.  J.  M.  Thoburn  (now 
Bishop  Thoburn)  was  present.  There  were  then 
only  one  Methodist  native  member,  six  proba- 
tioners and  four  inquirers.  The  following 
growth  has  all  occurred  during  Bishop  Tho- 
burn's  lifetime.  In  1866  there  were  282  persons 
in  connection  with  the  Church.  In  1876  the 
numbers  reached  3,840 ;  in  1886  there  were 
14,429.  It  was  during  this  decade  that  the  at- 
tention of  the  missionaries  was  first  more  es- 
pecially drawn  to  the  depressed  classes. 

In  1896  the  Christian  community  had  grown 
to  149,462.  In  1906  the  numbers  had  reached 
168,178,  while  in  1912,  only  six  years  later,  there 
were  241,860  persons  in  connection  with  the 
Methodist  Church. 

During  the  past  year  the  Methodists  in  India 
received  37,500  new  members  and  refused  ad- 
mission to  152,000  others  who  applied  for  bap- 
tism and  were  ready  to  be  received  but  for  the 
single  consideration  that  the  mission  was  not 
able   to    employ    the    workers    needed    for    their 

15 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

proper  training  and  development.  It  is  a  very 
perilous  thing  for  the  future  of  the  Church  in 
these  lands  to  receive  illiterate  converts  without 
following  them  up  carefully  with  further  in- 
struction. There  must  be  oral  instruction  for  a 
considerable  period  of  time,  as  almost  none  of 
these  low  caste  people  are  able  to  read.  The 
Methodist  leaders  look  forward  to  the  time  with- 
in a  very  few  years  when  they  will  be  receiving 
converts  in  India  alone  at  the  rate  of  at  least  100,- 
000  a  year.  Their  leaders  declare  that  literally 
millions  of  earnest  seekers  after  God  could  be  re- 
ceived during  the  next  ten  years  if  their  present 
appropriations  from  the  home  church  could  be 
increased  by  $100,000  a  year.  One  village  whose 
people  have  repeatedly  and  urgently  asked  for 
baptism,  recently  sent  in  this  pathetic  appeal: 
''Will  you  not  come  and  baptize  us  before  we 
die?"  Another  American  mission  has  this  past 
year  baptized  the  people  of  certain  villages  that 
first  asked  to  be  received  ten  years  ago.  The 
Church  is  at  least  ten  years  behind  the  provi- 
dence of  God  in  entering  into  these  open  doors. 

A  very  serious  word  of  warning  ought  to  be 
spoken  in  this  connection.  Millions  of  these 
people  are  in  grave  danger  of  being  led  off  into 
some  false  form  of  religion  unless  they  are  given 
the  truth  now  when  their  hearts  are  open. 
Mohammedanism  would  never  have  spread  as  it 
did,  but  for  the  fact  that  the  Christian  Church  of 
that  day  was  failing  terribly  in  its  work.     There 

16 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

is  still  the  danger  that  some  modern  false 
prophets  may  arise  amid  the  world's  present  re- 
ligious unrest  and  lead  vast  multitudes  yet 
further  astray,  if  the  Church  of  Christ  fails  to 
offer  to  the  waiting  hosts  in  lands  like  India  the 
everlasting  truth  of  the  gospel. 

4.  The  Moslem  World  has  been  generally  re- 
garded as  the  Gibraltar  of  the  non-Christian  re- 
ligions. There  are  over  200  millions  of  Moslems 
scattered  all  the  way  from  North  Africa  to  China 
and  the  Philippine  Islands.  The  greatest  single 
mass  of  them  is  found  in  India  where  there  are 
about  67  millions.  Until  recently  the  number  of 
Moslem  converts  to  Christianity  has  been  com- 
paratively small.  The  chief  gains  have  been  in 
Java  and  India.  In  Java  there  are  over  40,000 
who  have  turned  from  the  Moslem  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith. 

In  India  there  are  over  200  native  Christian 
preachers  in  addition  to  many  thousands  of 
church  members  who  were  once  Moslems.  But 
the  most  significant  thing  is  the  changed  attitude 
of  multitudes  of  Moslems  toward  Christianity. 
Christian  education  has  done  much  to  shake  the 
faith  of  thousands  of  the  most  intelligent  Mos- 
lems in  their  religion.  The  steadily  diminishing 
place  and  power  of  Moslem  government  in  the 
world  has  led  many  of  their  leaders  to  very 
serious  questioning  about  the  sources  of  their 
weakness.  Contact  with  Western  civilization 
and    bitter    defeats    in    war    have    still    further 

17 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

sobered  and  humbled  Moslem  leaders,  so  that 
never  before  in  the  thirteen  centuries  of  Moham- 
medan history  has  there  been  such  an  open  door 
for  aggressive  evangelistic  work  among  these 
proud  but  powerful  people. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  work  going  on 
anywhere  among  Moslems  is  in  Cairo,  Egypt,  the 
seat  of  the  famous  Mohammedan  University  and 
in  many  ways  the  intellectual  center  of  the  whole 
Moslem  World.  For  several  years  past,  a  con- 
verted Moslem  leader,  a  highly  educated  gradu- 
ate of  their  University  in  Cairo,  has  been  hold- 
ing evangelistic  meetings  for  his  own  people. 
He  is  so  skillful  in  public  debate  that  no  Moslem 
can  stand  up  against  him.  He  is  compelling 
serious  attention  of  the  claims  of  Christ  on  the 
part  of  many  educated  Mohammedans.  Re- 
cently in  one  of  his  public  meetings  a  young  man 
interrupted  him  with  a  captious  question,  as 
Moslems  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world  are 
trained  to  do.  Instantly  one  of  the  Professors 
from  the  Moslem  University  was  on  his  feet  in  a 
vigorous  rebuke  of  the  questioner,  saying  to  him : 
"Sit  down,  young  man.  The  time  has  gone  by 
for  that  kind  of  opposition.  We  are  here  with  a 
serious  purpose,  in  order  that  we  may  learn  more 
about  the  truth,  in  order  that  we  may  follow  it 
ourselves." 

Just  now  there  is  in  process  of  being  estab- 
lished the  Cairo  Christian  University  for  further 
bringing    powerfully    to    bear    upon    the    future 

18 


THE  DECISIVE   DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

leaders  of  the  Moslem  world,  the  truth  as  it  is 
revealed  in  Jesus  Christ. 

5.  Some  may  doubt  whether  Japan  and 
Korea  should  be  included  in  this  list  of  neediest 
fields  for  missionary  effort.  They  have  a  com- 
bined population  of  about  65  millions.  There 
has  been  a  widespread  impression  that  Japan 
could  look  after  herself,  in  view  of  her  progress 
and  achievements. 

''It  may  be  said  without  hesitation  that  Japan 
has  become  unique  among  the  non-Christian 
nations  of  the  world.  A  constitutional  govern- 
ment in  successful  operation  now  for  many 
years;  a  stable  financial  policy;  an  excellent 
post,  telegraph,  railroad  and  steamship  service 
already  become  a  second  nature;  a  splendid  edu- 
cational system,  providing  for  practically  every 
child  in  the  Empire,  and  reaching  out  to  all  the 
vocations  of  life  and  up  to  the  highest  grade  of 
university  work,  established  now  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century;  almost  universal  reading 
of  newspaper,  magazine  and  book  literature;  as- 
siduous study  of  foreign  nations  by  means  of 
many  hundreds  of  men  sent  abroad  during  over 
forty  years  for  research  and  observation,  which 
has  made  Japan  acquainted  with  the  world  at 
large  as  few  other  nations  are;  and  a  deep  and 
intelligent  hungering  and  thirsting  for  all  that 
is  best  in  the  world — these  things  characterize 
the  Japan  that  has  come  to  be  since  Commodore 
Perry    knocked    at   her    gates    sixty    years    ago. 

19 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

Does  not  this  remarkable  position  of  Japan  have 
a  meaning  for  the  coming  of  God's  Kingdom  that 
loudly  asks  to  be  taken  account  of  by  the  forces 
of  Christendom  today?" 

The  very  fact  of  Japan's  progress  gives  her  a 
unique  position  of  leadership  and  influence  in  the 
entire  Orient.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  effective 
ways  of  reaching  China  and  even  India  may  be 
by  winning  Japan.  Recent  investigations  made 
with  great  care  by  the  Federated  Protestant 
Missionary  forces  of  Japan  make  unmistakably 
clear  that  there  is  still  vast  need  for  missionary 
work  in  this  field.  They  report  that  80%  of  the 
population  of  Japan  live  in  rural  districts,  of 
whom  96%  are  still  unprovided  for. 

Of  the  20%  living  in  cities,  one-fifth  of  the 
people  are  unprovided  for. 

The  missionaries  and  Japanese  leaders  call  for 
a  doubling  of  the  present  number  of  evangelistic 
workers,  which  would  mean  at  least  400  more 
foreign  missionaries,  in  addition  to  multiplying 
the  force  of  Japanese  workers  at  least  fourfold. 

Two  recent  events  mark  a  change  in  attitude 
on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  nation  to  Christian- 
ity that  have  a  very  important  bearing  on  mis- 
sionary work  in  that  Empire. 

In  February,  1912,  the  Vice-Minister  of  the 
Home    Department,    officially    representing    the 
government,    called    together    representatives    of 
Buddhism,  Shintoism   and    Christianity    and  re- 
quested the  help  of  these  three  religions  in  up- 

20 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

lifting  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  nation. 
This  was  an  official  recognition  of  Christianity 
which  has  already  given  the  missionary  work  in 
many  places  an  unprecedented  standing  and 
prestige.  The  changed  attitude  of  the  people  in 
many  sections  formerly  indifferent  or  opposed  to 
Christianity  is  already  very  apparent. 

The  Constitution  and  the  Imperial  House  law 
of  Japan  prescribe  that  when  a  new  Emperor  as- 
cends the  throne  *'a  new  era  shall  be  inaugurated 
and  the  name  of  it  shall  remain  unchanged  dur- 
ing the  whole  reign."  When  the  late  Emperor 
of  Japan,  Mutsuhito,  ascended  the  throne  he  an- 
nounced that  his  era  should  be  known  as  Meiji, 
or  ''Enlightened  Reign,"  and  he  announced  that 
knowledge  should  be  sought  for  throughout  the 
entire  world.  His  reign  was  indeed  an  era  of 
enlightenment,  and  during  the  forty-four  years 
he  was  the  reigning  sovereign,  Japan  became  one, 
of  the  great  and  enlightened  nations  of  the  world. 

The  new  Emperor,  Yoshihito,  in  beginning 
his  reign  announced  that  his  era  should  be 
known  as  Taisel  (or  Daisho),  which  means  the 
*'Era  of  Great  Righteousness."  Article  two  of 
the  Constitution  of  Japan  already  guarantees 
freedom  of  religious  belief,  and  if  the  era  of  the 
new  Emperor  is  to  be  one  of  "Great  Righteous- 
ness" Christianity  will  have  an  almost  unpar- 
alleled opportunity  to  prove  its  value  in  that 
most    advanced    of    all    non-Christian    nations. 

In  the  University  of  Tokyo  there  are  some 

21 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

5,000  students.  Of  these  6  report  themselves  as 
Confucianists,  60  Christians,  300  Buddhists, 
1000  atheists,  and  the  remaining  3600  agnostics. 

It  is  a  highly  significant  fact  that  many  of  the 
Japanese  leaders  are  recognizing  that  their  ma- 
terial and  intellectual  progress  is  inadequate  and 
that  greater  emphasis  must  be  put  upon  moral 
and  spiritual  culture. 

By  the  action  of  the  Federated  Missions  of 
Japan,  including  all  the  evangelical  churches, 
there  was  inaugurated  in  March,  1914,  "a  three 
years'  evangelistic  campaign."  The  present  time 
is  regarded  by  missionary  leaders  in  that  field  as 
probably  the  most  favorable  opportunity  there 
has  ever  yet  been  for  a  widespread  expansion  of 
Christianity  among  the  Japanese. 

Though  Korea  has  only  about  one-fifth  of  the 
total  population  of  Japan,  and  though  mission 
work  in  that  field  has  only  been  carried  on  for 
about  half  the  length  of  time  it  has  been  done  in 
Japan  itself,  yet  the  church  in  Korea  is  now  al- 
most if  not  quite  as  large  in  point  of  members  as 
the  church  in  Japan.  And  in  its  evangelistic 
and  missionary  zeal  the  Korean  church  is  an 
inspiration  to  the  churches  of  all  lands.  The 
absorption  of  Korea  by  Japan  will  probably  re- 
sult in  hastening  the  evangelization  of  Japan 
itself.  The  persecution  and  suffering  of  the 
Korean  church  seems  only  to  have  added  to  its 
spiritual  power. 

6.     And  after  all  that  has  been  said  and  far 

22 


THE   DECISIVE   DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

more  that  might  be  said  of  these  five  great  and 
important  and  needy  sections  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian world,  the  giant  among  them  all  still  re- 
mains. Does  any  argument  need  to  be  made  for 
China  as  one  of  the  very  neediest  and  ripest  fields 
ever  thrown  open  to  Christian  occupation  and 
influence?  China  contains  one-quarter  of  the 
human  race  in  startlingly  rapid  transition,  edu- 
cationally, industrially,  governmentally  and  re- 
ligiously. It  is  a  question  whether  the  Church 
can  ever  again  confront  so  stupendous  an  oppor- 
tunity. 

Morrison,  the  pioneer  modern  missionary  to 
China,  worked  seven  years  for  his  first  convert 
which  was  secured  in  1814.  In  1834  there  were 
three  converts.      In  1842  there  were  six;    in 

1853 350 

1857 1,000 

1865 2,000 

1886. 28,000 

1900 100,000 

of  whom  probably  at  least  15,000  were  killed  in 
the  Boxer  rebellion. 

In  1910  there  were  278,628,  and  now  there  are 
well  over  300,000  Christians  in  China,  or  an  in- 
crease of  over  200%  since  1900. 

''The  whole  world  is  agreed  in  recognizing  in 
the  transformation  of  China  one  of  the  greatest 
movements  in  human  history.  Whether  we  con- 
sider the  immensity  of  the  population  affected, 

23 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

the  character  of  the  change  that  is  taking  place, 
the  magnitude  of  the  interests  which  are  in- 
volved, the  comparative  peacefulness  of  the 
crisis,  or  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  a  great 
and  ancient  race  is  undergoing  in  the  period  of 
a  decade  a  radical  intellectual  and  spiritual  re- 
adjustment, it  is  evident  that  it  is  given  to  us  to 
witness  and  have  part  in  a  vast  movement  whose 
consequences  will  affect  the  whole  world  and  be 
unending. 

This  movement,  we  believe,  may  become,  by 
God's  grace,  if  the  Christian  Church  is  faithful, 
the  regeneration  of  a  nation.  For  no  change  of 
institution,  of  political  principles,  of  social  order, 
or  of  economic  conditions  can  avail  to  satisfy  the 
deep  needs  of  which  China  has  now  become  con- 
scious. Political  reformation  requires  a  new 
moral  and  religious  life.  All  that  China  has  had 
that  is  worthy  she  needs  now,  and  with  it  she 
needs  also,  and  seems  now  prepared  to  receive, 
the  new  conceptions  of  the  Gospel,  and  not  these 
conceptions  only  but  also  the  power  of  God  in 
Christ  by  which  alone  they  may  be  realized  in  the 
life  of  the  nation  in  this  new  and  wonderful  day. 

The  time,  for  which  we  have  long  worked  and 
prayed,  appears  to  have  come  at  last  in  a  meas- 
ure and  with  a  momentum  beyond  our  faith. 
Everything  seems  to  be  going  into  the  melting- 
pot,  and  Christianity  at  last  has  an  opportunity 
to  furnish  the  molds  into  which  a  new  civiliza- 
tion of  one-fourth  of  the  human  race  may  be 

24 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

cast.  Of  all  times  in  history,  now  is  the  time  for 
Christian  churches  to  put  forth  their  supreme 
effort  to  aid  the  Chinese  people  in  remolding 
their  institutions  and  shaping  their  destiny." 

"If  we  fail  in  our  part  now,  the  glowing 
metal  that  seems  all  but  ready  for  the  touch  of 
the  Divine  Artist  will  fall  cold  and  hard  again, 
and  the  Church  may  have  to  wait  through  dec- 
ades, if  not  through  centuries  of  shame  and  re- 
morse, for  the  return  of  the  opportunity  of  this 
day." 

With  all,  however,  that  may  be  said  about  the 
hopefulness  and  promise  of  the  situation  in 
China,  the  following  words  of  warning  by  two 
great  missionary  leaders  in  that  land.  Bishop 
Bashford  and  Bishop  Lewis,  are  both  true  and 
timely : 

"While  we  recognize  the  Almighty  as  back  of 
the  awakening  in  China,  we  dare  not  hold  Him 
responsible  for  what  the  Chinese  have  done  or 
may  do,  now  that  they  are  awake.  Here  the  ele- 
ment of  human  freedom  must  be  reckoned  with. 
Worse  still,  we  must  also  reckon  with  those  evil 
influences  which  stand  ready  in  every  great  up- 
heaval to  divert  the  awakening  forces  into 
channels  of  destruction  or  at  least  to  push  them 
along  the  channels  of  reform  at  such  a  rate  and 
to  such  as  extreme  as  invite  destruction. 
Hence  those  who  desire  to  see  the  truth  whole 
must  recognize  dark  lines  in  the  picture  of  China's 
revolution.    With  the  almost  universal  ignorance 

25 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

of  the  masses,  with  almost  universal  corruption 
of  Chinese  as  well  as  Manchu  officials,  with  nar- 
rowness and  bitterness  of  clan  feuds,  the  local 
jealousies  of  province  against  province,  and  the 
widespread  jealousy  of'  the  south  against  the 
north,  with  the  difficulty  of  uniting  Chinese  and 
Manchus  and  Mongolians  and  Mohammedans, 
with  the  danger  of  foreign  intervention  and  the 
lawlessness  which  accompanies  every  transition 
in  government,  with  the  recurring  sufferings 
from  famine  and  the  more  widespread  suffering 
from  foot-binding,  with  the  dark  shadows  of 
slavery  and  polygamy  still  lingering  over  the 
land,  and  with  the  helplessness  and  hopelessness 
of  pagan  faiths — only  those  living  in  a  Fool's 
Paradise,  and  asleep  in  that,  can  dream  that  the 
proclamation  of  the  republic  will  be  attended  by 
the  inauguration  of  the  millennium.  Only  that 
divine  Providence  which  guides  nations  in  the 
great  crises  of  human  history  can  assure  the 
success  of  the  experiment  now  being  made  by  the 
countless  millions  of  China." 

The  needs  of  each  non-Christian  people  are 
so  great  that  there  is  room  for  the  widest  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  to  which  is  really  the 
neediest  of  all,  but  when  the  needs  of  all  are 
combined,  the  situation  is  one  which  should  pro- 
foundly move  every  disciple  of  Christ.  For  after 
all  these  centuries  since  He  sent  His  Church  out 
to  evangelize  the  world,  it  is  probable  that  more 
than  one-half  of  all  the  people  now  living  in  these 

26 


THE   DECISIVE   DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

non-Christian  lands  will  die  before  the  first 
messenger  of  Christ  reaches  them,  unless  the 
Church  is  moved  mightily  and  speedily  to  expand 
her  missionary  operations.  It  is  futile  to 
imagine  that  their  own  religions  can  meet  the 
spiritual  needs  of  these  multitudes.  None  of  the 
non-Christian  religions  has  a  worthy  conception 
of  the  character  of  God.  None  has  any  adequate 
or  consistent  standard  of  moral  conduct.  None 
teaches  the  real  nature  of  prayer.  And  not  one 
of  them  gives  any  idea  of  what  salvation 
consists  in. 

The  true  nature  of  God  is  terribly  misrepre- 
sented by  non-Christian  religions.  I  have  asked 
many  an  educated  Hindu  how  many  gods  there 
are,  and  they  always  answer  "333  millions." 
That  is  a  god  for  each  man,  woman  and  child  in 
India  and  18  millions  of  gods  to  spare !  Yet  they 
are  ''without  God,"  for  they  are  without  any  true 
or  satisfying  knowledge  of  God. 

The  most  famous  among  the  gods  of  India 
were  liars,  thieves  or  adulterers,  according  to 
their  own  "sacred  books."  When  asked  how 
they  can  worship  gods  that  lived  such  wicked 
lives,  I  have  had  Hindus  tell  me  repeatedly  that 
God  being  divine  may  commit  any  sin  he  likes, 
I)ut  such  large  liberty  is  not  permitted  to  merely 
human  beings! 

No  wonder  their  standards  of  morality  are  so 
inadequate,  so  confused  and  so  contradictory. 
No  wonder  that  lying,  stealing  and  impurity  are 

27 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

the  rule  rather  than  the  exception  throughout 
India  and  the  non-Christian  world.  Only  a  holy 
God  can  make  a  moral  people. 

One  chief  reason  why  the  Bible  is  not  a  more 
popular  book  is  because  it  reveals  on  its  every 
page  the  holiness  of  God.  In  the  presence  of  that 
purity,  all  human  nature  shrinks  as  consciously 
sinful  and  unworthy.  The  only  condition  under 
which  the  Bible  becomes  comfortable  reading  is 
when  one  is  ready  to  have  his  life  made  over  into 
the  likeness  of  God's  character. 

Even  prayer  becomes  a  form  and  a  method  of 
work  in  non-Christian  lands.  The  widespread 
conception  is  that  the  value  of  prayer  depends  on 
the  number  of  prayers  that  are  said.  Among 
Buddhists  this  conception  has  led  to  the  use  of 
various  mechanical  devices  for  saying  prayers. 
Among  these  one  of  the  most  common  is  to  write 
their  prayers  on  pieces  of  cloth  and  attach  them 
to  the  tops  of  poles,  with  the  notion  that  the 
prayers  are  all  repeated  each  time  they  are 
swayed  by  the  wind.  Another  method  is  the 
prayer-wheel,  consisting  of  a  hollow  cylinder, 
with  a  pivot  running  through  it  and  a  weight  at- 
tached to  one  side  so  it  can  be  easily  revolved. 
Into  this  cylinder  is  placed  a  coil  of  paper  with 
one  prayer  printed  upon  it  hundreds  of  times,  the 
idea  being  that  every  time  the  cylinder  is  re- 
volved the  prayers  are  all  repeated.  I  bought 
one  of  these  machines  from  a  Buddhist  priest  on 
the  crowded  main  street  of  Darjiling,  India.     He 

28 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

was  walking  along  the  street,  talking  with  a 
friend,  and  incidentally  grinding  out  several 
thousand  prayers  every  minute.  They  carry  the 
idea  to  yet  further  absurdity  in  Thibet  by  mak- 
ing these  cylinders  very  large, — sometimes  as 
large  as  a  barrel, — and  filling  them  with  yards 
and  yards  of  these  same  printed  prayers;  and 
then  to  save  labor,  they  generally  attach  them  to 
a  crude  water  wheel  that  keeps  them  grinding 
around  day  after  day  without  any  effort  on  the 
part  of  anyone.  This  might  be  described  as 
prayer  by  the  barrel!  And  prayer  by  water- 
power!  But  the  tragic  thing  about  it  is  that  it 
is  not  prayer. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  amazed  expression  on 
the  face  of  a  little  girl  in  North  Carolina  to 
whom  I  showed  one  of  these  prayer  wheels,  as 
she  searched  my  face  and  my  heart  with  the 
natural  question:  **Why  doesn't  somebody  tell 
them?" 

Until  they  understand  God  they  will  never 
know  how  to  pray.  God  is  only  revealed  to  men 
*'in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  ''Whosoever 
shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved. 
How  then  shall  they  call  on  Him  in  whom  they 
have  not  believed?  And  how  shall  they  believe 
in  Him  whom  they  have  not  heard?  And  how 
shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher?  And  how 
shall  they  preach  except  they  be  sent?  Even  as 
it  is  written,  how  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them 
that  bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things !    So  belief 

29 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

Cometh  from  hearing  and  hearing  by  the  word  of 
Christ."   (Rom.  10:14,15,17.) 

These  people  go  through  life  without  any  idea 
of  what  salvation  consists  in.  The  Hindu  be- 
lieves in  transmigration  of  soul.  He  expects  to 
be  born  many  thousands  of  times  in  the  form  of 
various  animals  and  finally  to  be  absorbed  into 
the  great  universal  spirit,  losing  all  conscious- 
ness and  all  personal  identity.  The  Moslem  be- 
lieves in  a  personal  conscious  immortality,  but  he 
has  turned  even  his  heaven  into  an  eternal  house 
of  prostitution ! 

I  once  had  an  experience  on  the  Red  Sea  that 
illustrated  vividly  the  failure  of  all  non-Christian 
religions.  We  saw^  a  little  sail-boat  containing 
eight  native  Africans  off  in  the  distance  one  day 
about  noon  run  up  a  signal  of  distress.  Coming 
up  to  them  and  stopping,  we  very  soon  dis- 
covered by  the  signs  they  were  making  that  they 
were  without  food  and  fresh  water.  They  had 
manifestly  come  out  from  the  African  shore 
under  favoring  breezes,  hoping  to  go  back  again 
at  their  pleasure,  but  the  wind  had  entirely 
fallen,  leaving  them  helpless  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea.  Being  insufficiently  supplied  with  fresh 
water  and  food,  these  had  been  exhausted,  and 
they  were  left  to  perish  of  hunger  and 
thirst.  Our  captain  supplied  them  with  a 
barrel  of  fresh  water  and  a  bag  of  rice  and  they 
appeared  well  content  to  wait  until  a  breeze  would 
spring   up   to   carry   them   back   home.       As   we 

30 


THE   DECISIVE   DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

sailed  away  from  them  that  day  I  could  not  help 
feeling  how  those  men  in  their  physical  distress 
illustrated  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  150 
millions  of  people  in  Africa,  the  315  millions  in 
India,  and  all  the  other  multitudes  of  the  non- 
Christian  world.  Here  were  men  with  water  in 
every  direction  from  them  further  than  the  eye 
could  reach,  yet  thirsting  to  death  for  a  single 
drink !  .  Many  a  man  in  similar  straits,  trying  to 
slake  his  thirst  with  sea-water,  has  been  thrown 
into  such  an  agony  of  suffering  as  to  lose  reason 
altogether  and  not  infrequently  to  leap  over- 
board, committing  suicide.  All  the  non-Chris- 
tian religions  in  the  world  are  like  salt  water 
to  a  man  who  is  thirsting  to  death  for  the  water 
of  life.  Not  one  of  them  can  satisfy  the  soul's 
thirst  after  God.  Not  one  of  them  knows  the 
secret  of  victory  over  sin.  Not  one  of  them  can 
point  the  way  of  life  and  liberty  or  give  any  as- 
surance of  salvation. 

Nor  is  the  failure  of  the  non-Christian  re- 
ligions only  a  religious  failure.  It  is  an 
educational  failure.  More  than  half  of  the 
people  living  in  the  world  today  are  absolutely 
illiterate.  It  is  not  because  they  do  not  have 
splendid  mental  capacity.  A  few  years  ago  the 
President  of  one  of  the  great  American  Univer- 
sities which  had  about  3,000  American  and 
thirty-three  Chinese  students,  declared  that 
there  were  no  other  thirty-three  men  in  the  Uni- 
versity who  were  the  equals  in  scholarship  of  the 

31 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

thirty-three  Chinese.  Yet  a  very  small  percent- 
age of  the  men  and  a  far  smaller  percentage  of 
the  women  of  non-Christian  lands  have  ever  had 
a  chance  to  learn  to  read. 

Consider  also  the  vast  volume  of  unnecessary 
suffering  in  the  non-Christian  world.  More  than 
half  the  world  today  are  living  without  any 
scientific  knowledge  of  hygiene,  sanitation,  med- 
icine or  surgery.  They  are  born,  pass  through 
life  and  die,  unattended  by  any  physician,  unless 
it  be  some  native  quack  doctor  who  more  often 
aggravates  the  suffering  than  he  alleviates  it.  I 
brought  back  with  me  from  Korea  a  set  of  the 
"chims"  or  small  knives  and  needles  used  by 
native  doctors  in  Korea  and  China.  These 
doctors  believe  that  pain  is  caused  by  the  pres- 
ence of  an  evil  spirit  and  the  knife  is  thrust  into 
the  seat  of  the  pain  to  let  the  evil  spirit  out. 
This  practice  is  so  common  that  some  missionary 
doctors  say  that  they  have  seldom  seen  anyone 
not  deeply  scarred  for  life  by  the  use  of  these 
knives,  or  of  red-hot  charcoal  used  for  the  same 
purpose.  One  Medical  Missionary  told  me  that 
a  native  Korean  had  come  to  him  saying  that 
different  native  doctors  had  thrust  nine  of  these 
little  knives  into  his  abdomen  and  left  them 
there!  He  was  feeling  very  uncomfortable  and 
he  hoped  the  missionary  doctor  could  do  some- 
thing. My  friend  told  me  that  he  put  this  man  to 
sleep,  opened  up  his  abdomen  and  hunted  for 
these  knives.  He  did  not  find  nine  but  he  did  find 

32 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

four;  two  of  them  had  gone  clear  through  the 
man's  body  and  were  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
walls  of  his  back ! 

Another  case  that  came  to  my  attention  was 
of  a  woman  with  a  cancer.  The  native  doctor 
had  thrust  one  of  these  knives  into  the  cancer 
and  the  next  case  brought  to  him  was  a  boy  with 
a  sprained  ankle  into  which  he  put  this-  same 
disease-infected  knife,  with  the  result  that  the 
boy  was  soon  dead  of  cancer  as  well  as  the 
woman.  Another  boy  with  a  swelled  foot  was 
told  to  wrap  it  up  in  cloth,  soak  it  in  kerosene  oil, 
and  set  fire  to  it.  When  the  boy  was  found  by 
the  missionary  doctor  there  was  only  time  to  am- 
putate the  limb  in  order  to  save  his  life. 

I  met  an  old  man  in  Korea  who  had  recently 
become  a  Christian.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  any 
scars  on  his  body  from  the  treatment  of  native 
doctors.  He  tossed  back  the  loose  cotton  cloth 
from  his  shoulders  and  exposed  his  breast  and 
shoulders  and  back  to  me.  I  never  saw  such  a 
sight  before.  There  was  scarcely  a  square  inch 
of  the  upper  part  of  his  body  that  had  not  been 
deeply  scarred  for  life  either  by  red-hot  charcoal 
or  the  use  of  these  knives.  He  was  able  to  speak 
about  it  with  a  smile,  for  he  had  now  found  the 
Saviour.  And  I  shall  never  forget  his  explana- 
tion of  his  torture.  He  said  to  me:  'The  devil 
was  very  hard  on  me  before  I  found  Christ!" 

The  churches  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada  have  sent  out  546  Medical  Missionaries 

33 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

to  deal  with  the  physical  needs  among  the  600 
millions  of  people  in  the  non-Christian  world 
who  constitute  the  field  of  the  North  American 
Churches.  This  is  an  average  of  less  than  one 
among  a  million  of  people.  Four  times  the 
number  would  be  an  extremely  conservative 
allotment. 

The  United  States  has  a  population  of  less 
than  one  hundred  millions.  This  is  less  than 
one-sixteenth  of  the  population  of  the  world,  and 
less  than  one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the  non- 
Christian  world.  In  the  United  States  are  over 
140,000  ordained  Protestant  ministers  and  about 
$300,000,000  annually  are  spent  for  religious  pur- 
poses by  Protestant  Churches.  For  the  work  in 
the  entire  non-Christian  world  the  same  constitu- 
ency spends  annually  only  one-twentieth  the 
amount  they  spend  at  home,  and  the  total  mis- 
sionary force  from  the  United  States  and  Canada 
is  only  9,223,  including  both  men  and  women,  or- 
dained and  unordained,  or  only  one-fifteenth  the 
number  of  ordained  ministers  at  home.  Every 
missionary  from  America,  including  laymen  and 
women,  has  an  average  of  65,000  persons  in  his 
field.  At  the  present  rate  of  giving  it  would 
take  Protestant  Christendom  sixty-five  years  to 
spend  an  average  of  two  dollars  on  each  person 
to  be  reached  in  the  non-Christian  world,  while 
we  already  spend  an  average  of  over  three 
dollars  annually  on  every  man,  woman  and  child 
of  our  home  population.      The  plain  fact  is,  that 

34 


THE   DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

the  Church  generally  has  not  taken  seriously  the 
command  of  Christ  to  evangelize  the  nations. 
Only  one  out  of  2,500  of  our  Protestant  Church 
members  has  gone  as  a  missionary  and  the  gen- 
eral average  contribution  to  foreign  missions  is 
still  less  than  one  dollar  per  member  per  year, 
though  of  course  many  congregations  and  some 
entire  denominations  are  giving  much  more  than 
this. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  comparatively  small  in- 
vestment of  both  workers  and  funds,  God  has 
marvelously  blessed  the  work  and  given  it  a 
fruitage  that  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  His 
divine  favor  and  power. 

The  Bible  has  been  translated  by  mission- 
aries, in  whole  or  in  part,  into  nearly  600  of  the 
languages  and  dialects  of  earth,  an  achievement 
so  stupendous  that  it  can  hardly  be  compre- 
hended. The  circulation  of  the  Bible  or  im- 
portant portions  of  it,  has  now  reached  about 
eighteen  million  copies  annually,  or  far  more 
than  the  aggregate  circulation  of  the  next  one 
hundred  most  popular  books  in  the  world. 

A  native  Christian  church  has  been  estab- 
lished in  every  great  section  of  the  world,  with 
an  aggregate  membership  of  about  three  mill- 
ions of  souls  and  four  millions  more  of  adher- 
ents. These  Christians  are  organized  into  about 
16,000  congregations,  and  contribute  over  five 
million  dollars  annually  for  the  support  of  the 
Church  and  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom.      There 

35 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

are  already  over  six  thousand  ordained  native 
ministers,  or  nearly  as  many  as  the  total  force 
of  ordained  missionaries  supplied  by  the  whole 
of  Protestant  Christendom.  It  requires  a  higher 
standard  to  get  into  many  of  these  native  Chris- 
tian churches  than  into  any  church  in  America. 
In  Korea,  for  example,  it  is  expected  that  new 
converts  will  show  their  faith  by  their  works  in 
bringing  at  least  one  other  person  to  Christ  be- 
fore they  are  themselves  received  as  full  mem- 
bers. No  wonder  that  in  that  field  there  has 
been  an  average  of  one  convert  for  every  hour  of 
the  day  and  night  since  the  first  missionary 
landed  on  Korean  soil ! 

Rev.  S.  J.  Corey  tells  of  seeing  ten  members 
of  one  African  congregation  refused  the  priv- 
ilege of  communion  for  inconsistent  Christian 
conduct.  Of  these  ten,  three  were  for  adultery 
and  three  others  for  not  paying  the  tenth  of  their 
income  to  the  Lord!  If  only  those  who  give  at 
least  one-tenth  of  their  income  to  God  were 
eligible  to  the  communion  tables  in  America, 
probably  not  over  one-tenth  of  the  church  mem- 
bership could  pass  this  test.  Yet  by  giving  the 
tenth  of  their  incomes  to  the  Lord,  and  also  by 
setting  aside  one  out  of  ten  of  their  members  for 
whole-time  Christian  service,  that  one  native 
African  congregation  supports  seventy-five  of 
its  own  members  as  evangelists  to  the  surround- 
ing territory.  The  nearest  approach  today  to 
the    spirit    of   the    Apostolic    Churches    may    be 

36 


THE  DECISIVE  DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 

found  among  native  Christians  on  foreign  mis- 
sion fields. 

But  the  greatest  achievements  of  Missions 
are  not  in  the  number  of  converts  but  in  the 
changed  attitude  of  whole  non-Christian  nations 
toward  Christ.  It  is  easier  now  to  add  millions 
of  converts  than  it  was  to  secure  hundreds  at 
the  beginning  of  the  modern  missionary  era. 
Through  the  influence  of  missions,  modern  edu- 
cational systems  are  now  beginning  to  be  pro- 
vided for  whole  nations  that  have  been  illiterate 
for  centuries.  The  place  and  possibilities  of 
womanhood  are  being  rediscovered  all  over  the 
non-Christian  world  through  missionary  influ- 
ence. Already  there  is  being  raised  up  the  van- 
guard of  that  coming  army  of  native  doctors  and 
nurses  in  all  lands  that  will  one  day  lift  the 
burden  of  unnecessary  suffering  from  one-half  of 
the  human  race. 

If  missions  had  done  nothing  else  they  would 
have  been  justified  many-fold  by  the  demonstra- 
tion that  they  have  provided  on  a  world-scale  of 
the  absolute  sufficiency  of  Christ  to  meet  all 
human  need.  He  has  taken  hold  of  humanity  at 
its  lowest  and  at  its  worst  in  every  section  of  the 
world  and  has  transformed  it  by  His  matchless 
power.  Many  of  the  outcastes.  in  India  have  been 
so  lifted  up  and  transformed  by  Christ  that  even 
the  Brahmins  now  sit  at  their  feet  and  hear  the 
words  of  heavenly  wisdom  from  their  lips.  The 
only  thing  that  is  now  necessary  to  the  world- 

37 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

wide  planting  of  the  Christian  Church  and  the 
universal  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  our  day  is 
sacrificial  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  followers 
of  Christ.  In  comparison  with  the  infinite  im- 
portance and  eternal  results  of  this  divinely  ap- 
pointed task,  nothing  else  greatly  matters. 


38 


THE  DECISIVE   DECADE  OF  MISSIONS 


I  said  "Let  me  walk  in  the  fields;" 

He  said  "Nay,  walk  in  the  town;" 
I  said  "There  are  no  flowers  there;" 

He  said  "No  flowers,  but  a  crown." 
I  said  "But  the  skies  are  black, 

There  is  nothing  but  noise  and  din;" 
But  He  wept  as  He  sent  me  back, 

"There  is  more,"  He  said,  "There  is  sin." 

I  said  "But  the  air  is  thick, 

And  fogs  are  veiling  the  sun;" 
He  answered,  "Yet  souls  are  sick 

And  souls  in  the  dark,  undone." 
I  said  "I  shall  miss  the  light. 

And  friends  will  miss  me,  they  say;" 
He  answered  me,  "Choose  to-night. 

If  I  am  to  miss  you,  or  they." 

I  pleaded  for  time  to  be  given, 

He  said  "Is  it  hard  to  decide? 
It  will  not  seem  hard  in  heaven, 

To  have  followed  the  steps  of  your  Guide." 
I  cast  one  look  at  the  fields. 

Then  set  my  face  to  the  town; 
He  said  "My  child,  do  you  yield? 

Will  you  leave  the  flowers  for  the  crown?" 

Then  into  His  hand  went  mine, 

And  into  my  heart  came  He, 
And  I  walk  in  a  light  divine 

The  path  I  had  feared  to  see. 


39 


Essential  Elements  in  a  Worthy  Life  Purpose 

The  final  test  and  measure  of  greatness  is 
service.  ''Whosoever  would  become  great  among 
you  shall  be  your  servant;  and  whosoever  would 
be  first  among  you  shall  be  bondservant  of  all. 
For  the  Son  of  Man  also  came  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto  but  to  minister  and  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  many."     Mark  10:43-45. 

The  chief  way  to  serve  Christ  is  to  help  one's 
fellowmen.  He  has  so  identified  himself  with 
mankind  that  he  represents  himself  as  saying 
at  the  last  judgment: — ''Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  the  least,  ye 
did  it  unto  me."     Mat.  25:40. 

No  life  purpose  is  worthy  that  fails  to  recog- 
nize service  to  others  as  its  central  law.  To  Kve 
for  gain  or  fame  or  pleasure  is  to  throw  life 
away  foolishly  and  fruitlessly. 

The  organizing  life-purposes  of  all  Chris- 
tians ought  to  be  fundamentally  identical  in 
their  essential  elements.  The  main  avenues  of 
service  are  the  same  for  the  farmer  and  the 
preacher,  for  the  mechanic  and  the  missionary. 
Any  disciple  of  Christ  in  any  land  may  and 
should  live  with  the  same  glorious  purpose  work- 
ing out  through  his  life  that  filled  the  life  of 
Moody  and  Spurgeon,  Livingstone  and  Carey  and 

40 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

the  Apostle  Paul.  In  the  plan  of  Christ  it  was 
never  intended  that  some  men  should  follow  a 
''secular"  and  others  a  ''sacred"  calling.  Every 
disciple  is  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
There  are  no  two  standards  of  moral  conduct, 
one  for  ministers  and  missionaries  and  another 
for  laj^men.  Nor  are  there  two  standards  of 
spiritual  obligation.  "From  every  man  accord- 
ing to  his  ability, — to  every  man  according  to  his 
need,"  is  the  law  of  the  Christian  life.  "No  man 
has  done  his  duty  till  he  has  done  all  he  can." 

1.  The  first  condition  of  a  complete  life  is 
the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  all  life  belongs 
wholly  to  God  and  that  EACH  SEPARATE 
LIFE  IS  A  DIVINE  PLAN.  "For  we  are  his 
workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  for  good 
ivorks,  which  God  before  prepared  that  we 
should  walk  in  them."  Eph.  2:10.  "I  press  on.  if 
so  be  I  may  lay  hold  on  that  for  which  also  I  was 
laid  hold  07i  by  Christ  Jesus."  Phil.  3:12.  The 
supreme  ambition  that  any  life  can  cherish  is  to 
discover  and  fulfill  the  perfect  plan  of  God. 

An  infidel  once  asked  a  humble  Christian  man 
what  kind  of  a  God  he  had, — a  big  God  or  a  little 
God.  The  inspired  reply  was,  "My  God  is  so  big 
that  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  Him, 
and  so  little  that  He  dwells  in  my  heart."  This 
is  in  exact  accord  with  the  promise  of  Jesus  him- 
self: "If  a  man  love  me  he  will  keep  my  word: 
and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  WE  WILL 
COME  UNTO  HIM  AND  MAKE  OUR  ABODE 

41 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

WITH  HIM."  John  14:23.  "Thus  saith  the  high 
and  lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  whose 
name  is  Holy:  I  dwell  in  the  high  and  lofty 
place,  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and  hum- 
ble spirit,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  the  humble  and 
to  revive  the  heart  of  the  contrite."  Isa. 
57:15.  This  is  not  only  the  superlative 
privilege  but  the  inevitable  experience  of 
all  who  love  Christ  and  obey  Him.  The 
experience  of  Paul  is  meant  to  be  that  of  every 
other  loyal  disciple:  **I  have  been  crucified  with 
Christ,  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that  live  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me."  Gal.  2:20.  This  is  not  a  figure  of 
speech,  but  practical  reality.  The  work  that 
Jesus  ''began  to  do"  (Acts  1:1)  while  on  earth 
in  the  flesh.  He  now  continues  to  do  through  the 
members  of  His  body.  "Noiv  ye  are  the  body  of 
Christ  and  severally  members  thereof."  1  Cor. 
12:27. 

2.  Why  are  not  the  actual  presence  and 
power  of  the  indwelling  Christ  more  fully  re- 
alized in  the  lives  of  Christian  people?  This 
brings  us  to  the  second  condition  of  a  complete 
and  worthy  life,— OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  WILL 
OF  GOD.  Conscious  or  unconscious  disobed- 
ience to  God  is  the  one  most  prolific  cause  of 
failure  and  barrenness  in  Christian  life  and 
service. 

Obedience  is  the  test  of  love, 

the  condition  of  assurance, 

the  basis  of  personal  victory, 

42 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

the  way  into  spiritual  discernment, 
the  measure  of  power, 
the  guarantee  of  fruitfulness,  and 
the  secret  of  heavenly  joy. 

(1)  Obedience  is  the  test  of  love.  "Ye  are 
my  friends  if  ye  do  the  things  that  I  command 
you,"  said  Christ.  John  15:14.  "If  ye  love  me 
ye  will  keep  my  commandments."  John  14:15. 
"And  why  call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the 
things  which  I  say?"  Luke  6:46.  One  of  the 
most  solemn  warnings  in  all  Scripture  is  given 
by  Christ  in  these  words:  "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will 
of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say 
unto  me  in  that  day.  Lord,  Lord,  did  we  not 
prophecy  by  thy  name,  and  by  thy  name  cast  out 
demons,  and  by  thy  name  do  many  mighty  works  ? 
And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew 
you:  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity." 
Mat.  7:21-23. 

(2)  Obedience  is  the  condition  of  assurance. 
"Hereby  we  know  that  we  know  Him,  if  we  keep 
His  commandments."  John  2:3.  A  man  has  no 
right  to  be  sure  of  his  own  salvation  unless  he 
knows  himself  to  have  the  purpose  of  obedience 
to  Christ  as  Lord. 

(3)  Obedience  is  the  basis  of  personal  vic- 
tory over  sin.  "Be  subject  therefore  unto  God, 
but  resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you. 

43 


MISSIONS  AND   LEADERSHIP 

Draw  nigh  unto  God  and  he  will  draw  nigh  unto 
you."    Jas  4:7,8. 

The  complete  prescription  for  victory  is: 

(a)  Subjection  to  God, 

(b)  Resistance  to  the  devil, 

(c)  Drawing  nigh  to  God. 

"Make  me  a  captive,  Lord, 
And  then  I  shall  be  free. 
Help  me  to  render  up  my  sword, 
And  I   shall  conqueror  be," 

All  victory  begins  with  surrender  to  Christ  as 
Lord  and  ends  with  reliance  on  His  omnipotent 
strength. 

(4)  Obedience  is  the  way  into  spiritual  dis- 
cernment. 

"If  any  man  willeth  to  do  His  will  he  shall 
know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  is  of  God,  or 
whether  I  speak  from  myself."  John  7:17. 

*'He  that  doeth  the  truth  cometh  to  the  light." 
John  3:21. 

'The  counsel  of  Jehovah  is  with  them  that 
fear  Him ;  and  He  will  show  them  His  covenant." 
Psalm  25:14. 

''What  man  is  he  that  feareth  Jehovah? 
Him  shall  He  instruct  in  the  way  that  he  shall 
choose."     Psalm  25:13. 

The  will  of  God  for  each  life  can  only  be  dis- 
covered as  there  is  the  disposition  in  the  life  to 
undertake  it.  God  does  not  reveal  His  plans 
merely  to  satisfy  curiosity.     It  was  when  Paul 

44 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

said,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?"  im- 
plying the  will  to  do  whatever  was  commanded, 
that  Christ  was  able  to  unfold  to  him  His  perfect 
plan.  ''Wherefore,  I  was  not  disobedient  unto 
the  heavenly  vision,"  (Acts  26:19)  is  Paul's  own 
description  of  his  attitude.  If  he  had  been  dis- 
obedient he  would  have  spoiled  God's  plan  for  his 
life,  as  multitudes  of  others  have  done. 

Many  young  men  and  women  are  anxious  to 
know  what  their  lifework  should  be.  The  way 
to  find  out  is  to  surrender  utterly  to  the  will  of 
God  in  advance,  and  resolve  to  obey  Christ, 
whatever  His  plan  may  be.  As  long  as  one  has 
any  resistance  to  God's  will  in  his  heart  it  is  of 
little  use  to  hope  to  discover  His  mind. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  a  young  man  pre- 
paring for  the  service  of  Christ,  and  he  was 
asked  one  day  by  a  friend,  "Are  you  willing  to  go 
to  Africa  for  Christ?"  This  proved  a  severe 
test  of  the  young  man's  obedience.  He  became 
willing  after  some  struggle  to  go  to  India  or 
China,  or  almost  any  other  field  except  Africa. 
But  his  friend  kept  pressing  the  question  each 
time  he  met  him:  "Are  you  yet  willing  to  go  to 
Africa  for  Christ?"  regarding  that  as  the 
hardest  field  and  so  the  severest  test  of  obedi- 
ence. The  man  had  no  peace  until  he  fought  the 
issue  out  in  his  own  soul  and  decided  that  he 
would  obey  Christ  even  if  he  were  sent  to  Africa. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  he  is  not  in  Africa.  He 
is   a   minister   of  the   gospel    in    Colorado.     But 

45 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

spiritual  peace  and  power  did  not  come  until  he 
was  willing  to  go  even  to  Africa. 

Stonewall  Jackson  was  noted  even  as  a  young 
Professor  for  his  absolute  devotion  to  the  will  of 
God,  no  matter  where  it  might  lead  him.  To  test 
his  obedience,  he  was  one  day  asked  by  a  friend, 
"If  you  believed  God  wanted  you  to  go  to  Africa 
and  spend  the  rest  of  your  life  there  in  missionary 
work,  would  you  go?''  And  the  instant  answer 
was :  ''Yes,  without  waiting  to  get  my  hat." 

Christians  would  do  well  to  put  to  themselves 
the  severest  test  of  obedience,  that  all  resistance 
to  the  will  of  God  may  be  discovered  and  cast  out, 
for  only  then  can  the  fulness  of  God's  presence 
be  realized  and  His  will  for  us  and  through  us  be 
fully  known. 

And  yet  it  is  not  so  much  through  these  hypo- 
thetical tests  that  we  discover  our  own  deepest 
attitude  of  heart  and  will,  but  in  the  multitudinous 
acts  of  our  daily  life.  Is  Christ  really  directing 
my  life's  energies  this  day?  Is  He  getting  done 
through  me  the  things  He  wants  done  in  the 
world? 

One  of  the  most  searching  and  suggestive 
things  ever  said  to  me  was  a  recent  remark  by  a 
friend  to  this  effect:  "I  have  stopped  merely 
measuring  my  life  by  what  I  hope  to  do  in  the 
future  and  have  begun  to  think  in  terms  of  what 
I  have  actually  got  done  today,  to  fulfill  Christ's 
will  through  me." 

(5)       Obedience  is  the  measure  of  spiritual 

U 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

power.  ''We  are  witnesses  of  these  things :  and 
so  also  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  God  hath  given 
to  them  that  obey  Him."      Acts  5:32. 

I  once  asked  a  large  audience  whether  there 
were  any  parents  present  who  were  unwilling  to 
have  their  children  go  anywhere  in  the  world 
that  God  might  send  them.  The  question  went 
like  an  arrow  to  the  heart  of  one  of  the  most 
prominent  ministers  present.  At  that  very 
moment  he  had  an  only  son  who  was  a  student  in 
a  Theological  Seminary,  but  he  recognized  in  his 
own  heart  an  unwillingness  to  have  this  son  go 
as  a  missionary.  He  was  aware  of  the  danger  of 
having  any  controversy  with  God,  and  in  earnest 
prayer  was  given  grace  to  say  ''Lord,  not  my 
will,  but  thine  be  done."  That  very  day  he  went 
out  to  preach  to  a  great  audience  of  factory  men 
in  the  open  air,  and  according  to  his  own  testi- 
mony the  power  of  God  came  down  upon  him  in 
such  fulness  that  over  forty  of  those  men  yielded 
their  lives  to  Christ  in  that  single  service.  His 
own  explanation  of  the  experience  was  his  new 
surrender  and  obedience  to  the  will  of  God. 

There  is  no  use  in  asking  for  the  Holy  Spirit 
unless  we  mean  to  obey  Him.  He  will  only  work 
in  power  where  He  can  have  His  way  in  the  life. 

It  would  be  absolutely  unsafe  for  God  to  in- 
trust His  power  to  anyone  who  was  not  deter- 
mined to  use  it  only  and  wholly  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  God's  will.  The  whole  universe 
might  be  thrown  into  confusion  by  the  exercise  of 


MISSIONS  AND   LEADERSHIP 

divine  power  that  is  not  in  complete  harmony 
with  the  divine  purpose. 

It  is  only  as  we  actually  obey  the  commands 
and  will  of  God  that  we  become  conscious  of  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  through  us.  The  gift  of 
the  Spirit  is  to  be  accepted  by  faith,  as  is  the  gift 
of  salvation  through  Christ.  His  work  will  be 
evident  as  we  actually  perform  the  service  to 
which  we  are  called. 

(6)  Obedience  is  the  absolute  guarantee  of 
fruitfulness. 

''Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you,  as  the  branch  can- 
not bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the 
vine ;  so  neither  can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I 
am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches:  He  that  abid- 
eth  in  me  and  I  in  him,  the  same  beareth  much 
fruit:  for  apart  from  me  ye  can  do  nothing. 
Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear  much 
fruit:  and  so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples."  John 
15:1-6,  8. 

The  single  condition  of  fruitfulness  is  obed- 
ient abiding  in  Christ.  He  did  not  say,  if  ye 
abide  in  me  and  are  an  ordained  minister,  or,  if 
ye  abide  in  me  and  have  a  good  education,  or,  if 
ye  abide  in  me  and  have  special  qualifications ;  no, 
to  abide  in  Him  is  in  itself  the  sole  condition  of 
bearing  much  fruit.  How  often  is  it  evident 
that  the  person  with  few  gifts  but  full  consecra- 
tion can  accomplish  what  is  utterly  impossible  to 
those  of  the  greatest  natural  gifts  but  without 
the  touch  of  divine  power  upon  them. 

48 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

(7)  Obedience  is  also  the  secret  of  heavenly 
joy. 

"If  ye  keep  my  commandments,  ye  shall  abide 
in  my  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept  my  Father's  com- 
mandments, and  abide  in  His  love.  These  things 
have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  may  be  in 
you,  and  that  your  joy  may  be  made  full."  John 
15:10,  11. 

One  of  the  favorite  lies  of  the  devil  is  that 
doing  God's  will  makes  one  miserable.  The  fact 
is  that  fighting  the  will  of  God  leads  to  most  of 
the  misery  in  the  world.  Obedience  to  the  will 
of  God  is  the  secret  of  all  the  deepest  joy  in  the 
world. 

The  whole  philosophy  of  life  can  be  summed 
up  in  three  phrases:  the  wisdom  of  righteous- 
ness,— the  beauty  of  holiness, — the  joy  of  obed- 
ience. 

Dr.  Jowett  well  says:  ''Religion  that  costs 
nothing  is  worth  nothing.  A  religion  that  sheds 
no  blood  can  render  no  vital  service  and  can  ex- 
perience no  heavenly  joy." 

The  price  of  perfect  joy  is  perfect  obedience. 

The  normal  attitude  of  the  Christian  disciple 
should  be  that  described  by  Florence  Nightingale 
when  she  said:  "I  never  refuse  God  anything." 

That  was  a  notable  declaration  of  Dr.  Sun 
Yat  Sen,  of  China :  "God  wants  not  your  patron- 
age, but  your  obedience." 

One  of  the  most  striking  expressions  of  this 
attitude  of  constant  surrender  and  obedience  to 

49 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

God's  will  that  has  ever  come  to  my  notice  was 
in  the  dying  words  of  Adam  McAll,  a  young 
missionary  to  the  Congo,  who  after  only  eighteen 
months  of  service  was  stricken  down  with  the 
fatal  fever.  In  his  closing  conscious  moments 
he  slowly  breathed  out  this  prayer  of  surrender 
and  victory:  'Thou  knowest  the  circumstances, 
Lord.  Do  as  Thou  pleasest.  I  have  nothing  to 
say.  I  am  not  dissatisfied  that  Thou  art  about 
to  take  me  away.  Why  should  I  be?  I  gave 
myself,  body,  mind  and  soul  to  Thee,  consecrated 
my  whole  life  and  being  to  Thy  service.  And 
now  if  it  please  Thee  to  take  me,  instead  of  the 
work  which  I  would  do  for  Thee,  what  is  that  to 
me?     Thy  will  be  done!" 

In  the  presence  of  a  spirit  like  this  even 
death  is  vanquished.  An  obedient  church  would 
be  resistless  in  its  advance  and  in  its  success. 

One  of  the  most  helpful  little  booklets  that  I 
have  discovered  during  the  past  two  years  is  en- 
titled *'The  Life  that  Wins."  It  contains  the  per- 
sonal testimony  of  Mr.  Charles  G.  Trumbull,  the 
widely  known  Editor  of  the  Sunday  School  Times. 
I  have  already  given  away  some  thousands  of 
copies  of  this  booklet,  and  warmly  recommend  a 
similar  use  of  it  by  others.  That  all  who  read 
these  pages  may  have  at  least  the  summary  of  his 
remarkable  testimony,  the  following  sentences 
and  paragraphs  are  reproduced  here: 

'There  is  only  one  life  that  wins;  and  that  is 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.     Every  man  may  have 

50 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

that     life;     every     man     may     live     that     life. 

I  do  not  mean  that  every  man  may  be  Christ- 
like; I  mean  something  very  much  better  than 
that.  I  do  not  mean  that  a  man  may  always  have 
Christ's  help ;  I  mean  something  better  than  that. 
I  do  not  mean  that  a  man  may  have  power  from 
Christ;  I  mean  something  very  much  better  than 
power.  And  I  do  not  mean  that  a  man  shall  be 
saved  from  his  sins  and  kept  from  sinning;  I 
mean  something  better  than  even  that  victory. 

To  explain  what  I  do  mean,  I  must  simply 
tell  you  a  very  personal  and  recent  experience  of 
my  own. 

The  conscious  needs  of  my  life,  before  there 
came  the  new  experience  of  Christ,  of  which  I 
would  tell  you,  were  definite  enough.  Three  in 
particular  stand  out: 

1.  There  were  great  fluctuations  in  my  spirit- 
ual life,  in  my  conscious  closeness  of  fellowship 
with  God.  Sometimes  I  would  be  on  the  heights 
spiritually;  sometimes  I  would  be  in  the  depths. 

2.  Another  conscious  lack  of  my  life  was  the 
matter  of  failure  before  besetting  sins.  I  was 
not  fighting  a  winning  fight  in  certain  lines.  Yet 
if  Christ  was  not  equal  to  a  winning  fight,  what 
were  my  Christian  beliefs  and  professions  good 
for?  I  did  not  look  for  sinlessness.  But  I  did  be- 
lieve that  I  could  be  enabled  to  win  in  certain 
directions  habitually,  yes,  always,  instead  of  un- 
certainly and  interruptedly,  the  victories  inter- 
spersed with  crushing  and  humiliating  defeats. 

51 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

3.  A  third  conscious  lack  was  in  the  matter  of 
dynamic,  convincing  spiritual  power  that  would 
work  miracle  changes  in  other  men's  lives.  I  was 
doing  a  lot  of  Christian  work — had  been  at  it  ever 
since  I  was  a  boy  of  fifteen.  I  was  going  through 
the  motions — oh,  yes.  So  can  anybody.  I  was 
even  doing  personal  work — the  hardest  kind  of 
all ;  talking  with  people,  one  by  one,  about  giving 
themselves  to  my  Saviour!  But  I  tvasn't  seeing 
results.  Once  in  a  great  while  I  would  see  a  little 
in  the  way  of  result,  of  course ;  but  not  much.  I 
didn't  see  lives  made  over  by  Christ,  revolution- 
ized, turned  into  firebrands  for  Christ  themselves, 
because  of  my  work ;  and  it  seemed  to  me  I  ought 
to.  Other  men  did,  why  not  I  ?  I  comforted  my- 
self with  the  old  assurance  (so  much  used  by  the 
Devil)  that  it  wasn't  for  me  to  see  results;  that 
I  could  safely  leave  that  to  the  Lord  if  I  did  my 
part.  But  this  didn't  satisfy  me,  and  I  was  some- 
times heartsick  over  the  spiritual  barrenness  of 
my  Christian  service. 

I  was  in  Edinburgh,  attending  the  World  Mis- 
sionary Conference,  and  I  saw  that  one  whose 
book  on  'The  Triumphant  Life"  had  helped  me 
greatly  was  to  speak  to  men  Sunday  afternoon  on 
"The  Resources  of  the  Christian  Life."  I  went 
eagerly  to  hear  him.  I  expected  him  to  give  us  a 
series  of  definite  things  that  we  could  do  to 
strengthen  our  Christian  life ;  and  I  knew  I  need- 
ed them.  But  his  opening  words  showed  me  my 
mistake,  while  they  made  my  heart  leap  with  a 

52 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

new  joy.     What  he  said  was  something  like  this: 

''The  resources  of  the  Christian  life,  my  dear 
friends,  are  just  Jesus  Christ." 

That  was  all.  But  that  was  enough.  I  hadn't 
grasped  it  yet ;  but  it  was  what  all  these  men  had 
been  trying  to  tell  me  about.  Later,  as  I  talked 
with  the  speaker  about  my  personal  needs  and 
difficulties,  he  said,  earnestly  and  simply,  ''Oh,  Mr. 
Trumbull,  if  we  would  only  step  out  upon  Christ 
in  a  more  daring  faith.  He  could  do  so  much  more 
for  us." 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  August  that  a  crisis 
came  with  me.  I  was  attending  a  young  people's 
missionary  conference,  and  was  faced  by  a  week 
of  daily  work  there  for  which  I  knew  I  was  mis- 
erably, hopelessly  unfit  and  incompetent.  For 
the  few  weeks  previous  had  been  one  of  my  peri- 
ods of  spiritual  let-down,  not  uplift,  with  all  the 
loss  and  failure  and  defeat  that  such  a  time  is 
sure  to  record.  The  first  evening  that  I  was  there 
a  missionary  bishop  spoke  to  us  on  the  Water 
of  Life.  He  told  us  that  it  was  Christ's  wish  and 
purpose  that  every  follower  of  His  should  be  a 
wellspring  of  living,  gushing  water  of  life  all  the 
time  to  others,  not  intermittently,  not  interrupt- 
edly, but  with  continuous  and  irresistible  flow. 
We  have  Christ's  own  word  for  it,  he  said,  as  he 
quoted,  '*He  that  believeth  on  me,  from  within 
him  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water." 

The  next  morning,  alone  in  my  room,  I  prayed 
it  out  with  God,  as  I  asked  Him  to  show  me  the 

53 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

way  out.  If  there  is  a  conception  of  Christ 
that  I  did  not  have,  and  that  I  needed  because  it 
was  the  secret  of  some  of  these  other  lives  I  had 
seen  or  heard  of,  a  conception  better  than  any  I 
had  yet  had,  and  beyond  me,  I  asked  God  to  give 
it  to  me.  I  had  with  me  the  sermon  I  had  heard, 
''To  me  to  live  is  Christ,''  and  I  rose  from  my 
knees  and  studied  it.  Then  I  prayed  again.  And 
God,  in  His  long-suffering  patience,  forgiveness, 
and  love,  gave  me  what  I  asked  for.  He  gave  me 
a  new  Christ — wholly  new  in  the  conception  and 
consciousness  of  Christ  that  now  became  mine. 

Wherein  was  the  change?  It  is  hard  to  put 
it  into  words,  and  yet  it  is,  oh,  so  new,  and  real, 
and  wonderful,  and  miracle-working  in  both  my 
own  life  and  the  lives  of  others. 

To  begin  with,  I  realized  for  the  first  time  that 
the  many  references  throughout  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  Christ  in  you,  and  you  in  Christ,  Christ 
our  life,  and  abiding  in  Christ,  are  literal,  actual, 
blessed  fact,  and  not  figures  of  speech.  How  the 
15th  chapter  of  John  thrilled  with  new  life  as  I 
read  it  now!  And  the  3rd  of  Ephesians,  14  to  21. 
And  Galatians  2:20.      And  Philippians  1:21. 

Do  you  wonder  that  Paul  could  say  with  tin- 
gling joy  and  exultation,  "To  me  to  live  is 
Christ"?  He  did  not  say,  as  I  had  mistakenly 
been  supposing  I  must  say,  "To  me  to  live  is  to  be 
Christlike,"  nor  "To  me  to  live  is  to  have  Christ's 
help,"  nor,  "To  me  to  live  is  to  serve  Christ."  No ; 
he  plunged  through  and  beyond  all  that  in  the 

54 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

bold,  glorious,  mysterious  claim,  "To  me  to  live 
is  Christ/'  I  had  never  understood  the  verse  be- 
fore. Now,  thanks  to  His  gift  of  Himself,  I  am 
beginning  to  enter  into  a  glimpse  of  its  wonder- 
ful meaning.  As  a  young  missionary  friend  put 
it,  whose  life,  as  he  was  about  to  sail  for  the  field, 
was  revolutionized  through  his  new  appropriation 
of  Christ,  "For  me  to  live  is  for  Christ  to 
live." 

And  that  is  how  I  know  for  myself  that  there 
is  a  life  that  wins:  that  it  is  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ :  and  that  it  may  be  our  life  for  the  asking, 
if  we  let  Him — in  absolute,  unconditional  sur- 
render of  ourselves  to  Him,  our  wills  to  His  will, 
making  Him  the  Master  of  our  lives  as  well  as  our 
Saviour — enter  in,  occupy  us,  overwhelm  us  with 
Himself,  yea,  fill  us  with  Himself  "unto  all  the 
fulness  of  God." 

What  has  the  result  been  ?  Did  this  experience 
give  me  only  a  new  intellectual  conception  of 
Christ,  more  interesting  and  satisfying  than  be- 
fore? If  it  were  only  that,  I  should  have  little  to 
tell  you  today.  No;  it  meant  a  revolutionized, 
fundamentally  changed  life,  within  and  without. 
If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  you  know,  there  is  a  new 
creation. 

The  three  great  lacks  or  needs  of  which  I 
spoke  at  the  opening  have  been  miraculously  met 
as  follows: 

(1)  There  has  been  a  fellowship  with  God, 
when  I  have  trusted  fully,  utterly  different  from 

55 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

and    infinitely    better    than  anything  I  had  ever 
known  in  all  my  life  before. 

(2)  There  has  been  victory-by-freedom  over 
certain  besetting  sins — the  old  ones  that  used  to 
throttle  and  wreck  me — when  I  have  trusted 
Christ  for  this  freedom.  There  is  yet  infinitely 
much  ground  to  be  occupied  by  Christ;  of  that 
I  am  more  painfully  aware  than  I  ever  used  to 
be;  and  I  know,  also,  that  there  is  in  my  life,  as 
has  been  well  said,  "a  vast  area  of  undiscovered 
sin"  that  I  have  not  let  Him,  as  I  must  by  ever 
completer  surrender  and  obedience,  yet  open  mj' 
eyes  to. 

(3)  And,  lastly,  the  spiritual  results  in  serv- 
ice have  given  me  such  a  sharing  of  the  joy  of 
Heaven  as  I  never  knew  was  possible  on  earth. 

Jesus  Christ  does  not  want  to  be  our  helper; 
He  wants  to  be  our  life. 

When  our  life  is  not  only  Christ's,  but  Christ, 
our  life  will  be  a  winning  life:  for  He  cannot 
fail. 

The  conditions  of  thus  receiving  Christ  as  the 
fulness  of  the  life  seem  to  be  three — after,  of 
course,  complete  confession  of  sin  and  our  per- 
sonal acceptance  of  Christ  as  our  Saviour  from 
the  guilt  and  consequences  of  our  sin. 

(1)  Surrender  absolutely  and  unconditionally 
to  Christ  as  Master  of  all  that  we  are  and  all  that 
we  have. 

(2)  Ask  God  for  this  gift  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ  as  our  life. 

56 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

(3)  Believe,  then,  that  God  has  done  what  we 
have  asked — not  ivill  do,  but  has  done  it.  Upon 
this  third  step,  the  quiet  act  of  faith,  all  may 
depend.  Faith  must  be  willing  to  believe  God  in 
entire  absence  of  any  feeling  or  evidence.  For 
God's  word  is  safer,  better  and  surer  than  any 
evidence  of  His  word. 

And  remember  that  Christ  Himself  is  better 
than  any  of  His  blessings ;  better  than  the  power, 
or  the  victory,  or  the  service,  that  He  grants. 
God  creates  the  electricity  that  drives  cars,  and 
carries  messages,  and  lights  our  houses;  but  God 
is  better  than  electricity.  Christ  creates  spirit- 
ual power;  but  Christ  is  better  than  that  power. 
He  is  God's  best ;  He  is  God ;  and  we  may  have 
this  best:  we  may  have  Christ,  yielding  to  Him 
in  such  completeness  and  abandonment  of  self 
that  it  is  no  longer  we  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  us.  Will  you  thus  take  Him?" 

3.  The  third  vital  element  in  every  Christian 
life-purpose  is  habitual  personal  witnessing.  It 
was  to  make  effective  witnesses  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  given. 

''Ye  shall  receive  power,  when  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  come  upon  you :  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses 
both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria, 
and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth." 
Acts  1:8. 

There  is  no  command  in  the  Bible  to  uncon- 
verted people  to  come  to  church  to  hear  the 
gospel.      The  command  is  to  disciples  to  go  out 

57 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  And 
the  great  method  of  preaching  is  to  bear  testi- 
mony concerning  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  us. 

No  disciple  is  free  from  this  obligation.  It 
is  the  one  thing  for  which  Christ  declared  that 
the  Spirit  was  being  sent,  and  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  to  every  disciple.  This  is  made 
unmistakably  clear  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
book  of  Acts.  Peter  closed  his  sermon  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost  with  these  words:  "Let  all  the 
house  of  Israel  therefore  know  assuredly  that 
God  hath  made  Him  both  Lord  and  Christ,  this 
Jesus  whom  ye  crucified."  Acts  2:36.  The 
statement  that  follows  is  of  the  greatest  signifi- 
cance. "Now  when  they  heard  this  (these  men 
who  had  crucified  Christ)  they  were  pricked  in 
their  heart  and  said  unto  Peter  and  the  rest  of 
the  apostles.  Brethren,  what  shall  we  do?  And 
Peter  said  unto  them.  Repent  ye  and  be  baptized 
every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
unto  the  remission  of  your  sins ;  and  ye  shall  re- 
ceive the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  to  you  is 
the  promise,  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that 
are  afar  off,  eveyi  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call  unto  Him/'     Acts  2 :37,  38. 

No  language  could  be  employed  to  indicate 
more  positively  or  unmistakably  that  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  for  every  disciple.  It  is  abun- 
dantly evident  that 

God  needs  us  all, 

God  calls  us  all, 

58 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

God  equips  us  all,   and  it  is  also  true  that 

God  holds  us  all  responsible. 

''So  thou,  son  of  man,  I  have  set  thee  a  watch- 
man unto  the  house  of  Israel ;  therefore  hear  the 
word  at  my  mouth,  and  give  them  warning  from 
me.  When  I  say  unto  the  wicked,  '0  wicked 
man,  thou  shall  surely  die,'  and  thou  dost  not 
speak  to  warn  the  wicked  from  his  way;  that 
wicked  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  but  his  blood 
will  I  require  at  thy  hand.  Nevertheless,  if  thou 
warn  the  wicked  of  his  way  to  turn  from  it,  and 
he  turn  not  from  his  way,  he  shall  die  in  his 
iniquity,  but  thou  hast  delivered  thy  soul." 
Ezekiel  33:7-9. 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  picture  of  Christ's 
rejection  of  those  at  the  final  judgment,  who 
have  not  shown  their  faith  by  their  works: 
"Then  shall  He  say  unto  them  on  the  left  hand. 
Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  the  eternal  fire, 
which  is  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels: 
for  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  did  not  give  me  to  eat ;  I 
was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  no  drink;  I  was  a 
stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in,  naked,  and  ye 
clothed  me  not;  sick,  and  in  prison,  and  ye 
visited  me  not.  Then  shall  they  also  answer, 
saying.  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  hungry,  or 
athirst,  or  a  stranger,  or  naked,  or  sick,  or  in 
prison,  and  did  not  minister  unto  thee?  Then 
shall  He  answer  them,  saying,  Verily  I  say  unto 
you.  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  these 
least,  ye  did  it  not  unto  me.      And  these  shall  go 

59 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

away  into  eternal  punishment:  but  the  righteous 
into  eternal  life."    Mat.  25:41-46. 

The  cry  of  the  Psalmist  is,  "Let  the  redeemed 
of  the  Lord,  SAY  SO."     Ps.  107:2. 

How  can  one  who  has  been  bought  by  the 
blood  of  Christ  be  content  to  go  through  life  and 
not  SAY  SO  to  others  who  have  not  yet  been 
redeemed?  "He  that  is  wise  winneth  souls." 
Proverbs  11:30.  "They  that  are  wise  shall  shine 
as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  they  that 
turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever 
and  ever."     Daniel  12:3. 

"Let  us  offer  up  a  sacrifice  of  praise  to  God 
continually,  that  is,  the  fruit  of  lips  that  make 
confession  to  His  name."      Heb.  13:15.  • 

In  other  words,  let  us  praise  God  continually 
by  confessing  Christ  habitually. 

"With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  right- 
eousness ;  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made 
unto  salvation."  Rom.  10:10.  Not  only  is  con- 
fession with  the  mouth  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant initial  evidences  of  salvation,  but  habitual 
confession  of  Christ  with  the  mouth  is  one  of  the 
best  continuous  evidences  of  Christ's  saving 
power  from  sin. 

The  chief  reason  why  testimony  to  Christ  is 
not  more  general  and  more  habitual  among 
Christian  disciples  is  personal  defeat  in  the 
battle  with  sin.  People  are  conscious  of  the  in- 
consistency of  bearing  testimony  to  a  Saviour 
who  is  not  now  saving  them  from  the  dominion 

60 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

of  sin,  even  though  they  know  perfectly  well  that 
it  is  their  own  fault  and  not  Christ's,  that  they 
are  meeting  defeat. 

The  place  for  emphasis  therefore  is  on  such  a 
surrender  and  obedience  to  Christ  as  will  make 
possible  a  steadily  victorious  life  through  His 
abiding  presence.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  that  the  duty  of  habitual 
witnessing  be  impressed  upon  all  disciples  of 
Christ.  The  consciousness  of  this  obligation  is 
a  mighty  inspiration  toward  living  the  kind  of  a 
life  where  witnessing  is  not  only  possible  but 
normal  and  inevitable. 

I  was  told  recently  by  a  man  about  seventy 
years  of  age  that  he  had  been  distributing  gospel 
tracts  wherever  he  went  for  more  than  thirty 
years.  He  told  me  that  he  could  notice  any  cold- 
ness or  decline  in  his  spiritual  life  at  once,  by  a 
tendency  to  neglect  this  work,  which  had  become 
to  him  his  most  constant  method  of  bearing 
testimony  to  Christ. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  churches  on  the  mission  fields  is  the  fact 
that  personal  witnessing  is  so  much  more  gen- 
eral there  than  in  the  home  churches.  I  met  a 
freshman  in  college  in  Korea  who  told  one  of  his 
teachers  that  he  had  dealt  personally  with  over 
3,000  persons  within  six  months.  Many  entire 
congregations  on  the  mission  field  are  made  up  of 
people,  every  one  of  whom  has  brought  some  one 
else  to  the  Saviour. 

61 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

I  know  of  no  better  rule  for  personal  witness- 
ing than  that  adopted  by  the  late  Henry  Clay 
Trumbull,  and  illustrated  with  many  incidents 
in  his  book,  "Individual  Work  for  Individuals." 
This  is  the  resolution  which  he  made  early  in  his 
Christian  life  and  followed  faithfully  for  more 
than  fifty  years: 

''Whenever  I  am  justified  in  choosing  my  sub- 
ject of  conversation  with  another,  the  theme  of 
themes  shall  have  prominence  bettceen  us,  so 
that  I  may  learn  his  need,  and,  if  possible,  meet 
itr 

More  than  ten  years  before  his  death  I  heard 
Dr.  Trumbull  say  that  he  had  a  written  record 
of  over  ten  thousand  such  personal  interviews.  I 
was  deeply  impressed  with  two  remarks  he  made 
in  commenting  upon  his  remarkable  experience. 
He  said  that  in  every  case  the  devil  had  tempted 
him  not  to  have  the  interview,  at  least  at  that 
particular  time.  He  also  said  that  in  no  single 
case  that  he  could  remember  had  he  been  rudely 
repulsed. 

4.  The  fourth  vital  element  in  a  worthy  life- 
purpose  is  STUDY.  This  includes  study  of  the 
Word  and  study  of  the  world. 

'If  ye  abide  in  my  word  then  are  ye  truly  my 
disciples;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."      John  8:31,32. 

''Behold  I  say  unto  you,  lift  up  your  eyes  and 
look  on  the  fields,  that  they  are  white  already 
unto  harvest."      John  4:35. 

62 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

No  one  can  go  beyond  his  knowledge.  Knowl- 
edge comes  not  by  accident  but  by  diligent  ap- 
plication and  effort. 

"Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved 
unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed,   handling   aright   the   word   of  truth." 

The  study  of  God's  word  is  necessary  to  dis- 
cover the  principles  and  methods  by  which  God 
is  extending  and  establishing  His  Kingdom.  It 
is  also  vital  as  the  greatest  single  means  of 
fellowship  with  God  Himself. 

Bible  study  is  the  very  chiefest  element  in 
preparation  for  every  kind  of  effective  Christian 
service.  ''Abide  thou  in  the  things  which  thou 
hast  learned  and  hast  been  assured  of,  knowing 
of  whom  thou  hast  learned  them ;  and  that  from 
a  babe  thou  hast  known  the  sacred  writings  which 
are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Every 
scripture,  inspired  of  God,  is  also  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion which  is  in  righteousness;  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto 
every  good  work."  2  Tim.  3:14-17.  The  Bible 
is  called  ''the  sword  of  the  Spirit,"  and  those 
whose  work  has  been  most  honored  and  blessed 
have  been  those  who  have  used  most  faithfully 
and  largely  the  Spirit's  favorite  weapon. 

This  point  needs  emphasis  even  in  Theologi- 
cal Seminaries,  where  one  would  naturally  sup- 
pose  that  the   Bible   is   the   chief  book   that    is 

63 


MISSIONS  AND   LEADERSHIP 

studied.  But  those  familiar  with  the  facts  know 
that  even  in  these  schools  of  the  prophets,  there 
is  an  almost  irresistible  tendency  to  study  other 
subjects  so  much  that  the  study  of  the  Bible 
itself  is  neglected.  So  much  time  is  given  to 
Hebrew  and  Greek,  and  Church  History,  and 
Apologetics  and  Homiletics,  and  Biblical  Criti- 
cism, and  other  subjects,  that  large  numbers  of 
students  who  graduate  from  the  Theological 
Seminaries  of  America  have  no  real  command  of 
the  material  in  the  Bible  itself,  and  only  the  most 
rudimentary  knowledge  of  how  to  teach  the 
Bible.  No  one  can  mingle  freely  with  the 
ministers  and  missionaries  of  the  present  day 
without  hearing  convincing  evidence  of  the  truth 
of  these  observations.  It  is  not  intended  here  to 
depreciate  the  value  of  the  other  studies  ordi- 
narily included  in  Theological  Seminaries,  but  it 
is  contended  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible 
itself,  and  how  to  teach  it,  is  of  more  importance 
than  all  the  other  elements  of  the  Theological 
curriculum  put  together. 

What  is  learned  of  Hebrew  is  of  very  limited 
use  to  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  ministers  of  our  day. 
Perhaps  one-quarter  of  the  active  ministers 
make  a  somewhat  larger  use  of  the  Greek.  Most 
of  the  seminary  text-books  are  seldom  opened 
after  the  final  examinations  are  passed.  The 
business  of  the  minister  is  to  ''preach  the  Word." 
But  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  ministers  of  our 
day  can  be  regarded  as  proficient  in  this  most 

64 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

essential  preparation.  The  whole  curriculum  of 
most  of  the  Theological  Seminaries  of  North 
America  needs  to  be  reorganized  around  the 
Bible  as  the  central  text-book. 

6.  Another  great  need  is  for  a  better  method 
and  a  larger  amount  of  Bible  study  by  college 
students.  By  common  consent  the  Bible  is  the 
highest  standard  of  English  literature.  For  all 
the  real  business  of  living,  no  other  book  can 
compare  with  it  in  practical  importance.  No 
one  ought  to  graduate  from  a  Christian  college 
without  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole, 
a  thorough  mastery  of  selected  books,  a  method 
of  study  that  can  be  followed  for  the  rest  of  one's 
life,  and  the  ability  to  teach  the  Bible  interest- 
ingly and  profitably  to  others.  There  is  as  much 
mental  discipline  in  thorough  Bible  study  as  in 
the  mastery  of  any  other  textbook,  and  no  other 
book  can  begin  to  furnish  the  moral  and  spiritual 
illumination  and  inspiration  that  the  Bible 
contains. 

The  study  of  the  world  is  also  important  in 
order  to  know  what  the  religious  conditions  are 
now  in  each  part  of  the  world,  and  what  yet 
needs  to  be  done  in  order  that  the  total  program 
of  Christ  may  be  carried  out.  The  necessity 
for  this  study  is  continuous,  for  the  world  is 
changing  so  rapidly  that  it  is  difficult  to  keep  in 
touch  with  Kingdom-progress  and  opportunity. 
Thorough  and  continuous  study  is  essential  to 
every    Christian    who    would    fulfill    God's    plan 

65 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

through  his  life.  No  one  can  pray  with  intelli- 
gence unless  he  knows  the  problems  and  the  per- 
sons to  pray  for  at  any  particular  time.  No  one 
can  use  his  possessions  to  the  best  advantage 
unless  he  studies  the  strategy  of  the  Christian 
battle,  and  knows  where  money  can  be  used  most 
fruitfully.  We  have  entirely  too  much  of  leav- 
ing these  matters  in  the  hands  of  officers  of  con- 
gregations or  of  denominations.  This  is  poor 
education  and  worse  religion.  Every  Christian 
should  decide  with  intelligence  and  prayer  how 
to  invest  his  money  for  the  Lord,  for  it  is  a  vital 
part  of  the  investment  of  his  life. 

It  must  be  apparent  that  no  one  can  exercise 
the  all-round  influence  that  God  intends,  on  the 
whole  forward  movement  of  Christianity  in  the 
world,  unless  he  knows  enough  about  current 
world  conditions  and  problems  to  instruct  and 
inspire  others,  as  well  as  to  direct  his  own 
prayers  and  efl^orts. 

5.  The  fifth  element  of  a  Christian  life-pur- 
pose is  Prayer. 

After  this  manner  therefore,  pray  ye: 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven. 

Hallowed  be  Thy  name        )  on  earth  as  it 
Thy  Kingdom  come  ^  is  in  heaven — 

Thy  will  be  done  j  Mat.  6:9-10. 

''The  harvest  indeed  is  plenteous,  but  the 
laborers  are  few:    pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of 

66 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

the  harvest,  that  He  send  forth  laborers  into  His 
harvest."      Luke  10:2. 

Those  who  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  will 
certainl}^  put  the  Kingdom  first  in  their  prayers, 
as  well  as  first  in  time,  first  in  effort,  first  with 
gifts,  influence  and  all  the  other  potentialities  of 
their  being. 

In  the  model  praj^er  the  Kingdom  is  not  a 
postscript;  it  is  the  main  burden  of  the  prayer. 
Before  even  daily  bread  or  any  other  personal 
need  is  mentioned,  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom 
are  presented.  Do  our  prayers  stand  this  test? 
How  much  real  prayer  is  there  for  the  sending 
out  of  needed  laborers?  This  is  the  chief  method 
by  which  laborers  are  to  be  found  and  sent,  ac- 
cording to  our  Lord's  statement.  Yet  how  often 
this  command  of  Christ  to  pray  for  laborers  is 
ignored  and  neglected! 

If  people  pray  aright  for  missions,  they  will 
do  everything  else  that  they  ought  to  do.  This 
is  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  Christ  did  not 
even  wait  to  mention  the  other  things  that  are 
necessary. 

No  one  can  pray  as  he  ought  for  laborers  and 
not  be  willing  to  go  himself  to  any  part  of  the 
world  field.  No  one  can  pray  this  prayer  with 
reality,  and  not  be  willing  that  his  children  and 
other  loved  ones  should  go  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  as  Christ's  ambassadors.  No  one  can  pray 
this  prayer  with  any  power  if  he  withholds  from 
God  his  own  possessions  that  might  enable  those 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

to  go  who  are  willing.  It  is  inconsistent  to  offer 
this  prayer  for  laborers  and  then  do  nothing  to 
find  the  laborers  needed,  or  to  bring  to  the  at- 
tention of  young  men  and  women  the  great 
unoccupied  fields. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Anderson  puts  this  in  a  way  that 
is  very  challenging:  "A  man  cannot  live  in  sin 
and  really  pray  that  others  be  delivered  from 
sin;  nor  can  he  live  his  own  life  in  selfishness 
and  pray  that  others  may  have  their  lives  filled 
with  love;  nor  himself  live  far  from  God  and 
pray  that  others  may  be  drawn  near  to  Him, 
A  man  may  pray  as  much  as  he  lives,  and  all  the 
rest  of  his  attempts  at  prayer  are  mockery." 

There  are  those  who  have  taken  Christ  se- 
riously and  have  prayed  for  laborers.  They 
have  asked  Him  if  He  wanted  them  to  go,  and 
told  Him  they  stood  ready  to  follow  His  direc- 
tions. They  have  been  on  the  lookout  for  pos- 
sible laborers,  and  have  made  it  a  habit  to  ask 
young  men  and  women  and  even  children  the 
question  of  whether  they  might  not  best  serve 
God  by  becoming  missionaries.  And  some  of 
these  people  have  been  used  to  lead  scores  of 
missionaries  into  various  parts  of  the  world,  be- 
cause they  prayed  and  along  with  their  prayers 
allowed  God  to  use  them  as  His  agents  in  calling 
workers  into  the  fields. 

One  of  the  most  inspiring  object-lessons  of 
this  fruitful  form  of  service  is  Pastor  Ding 
Lee  Mei,  of  China.    I  have  never  met  anyone  else 

68 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

who  seemed  to  me  to  have  gone  into  the  business 
of  prayer  quite  so  systematically  and  thoroughly 
as  this  Chinese  pastor.  I  saw  him  at  the  Ruling 
Missionary  Conference  in  China  in  the  summer 
of  1911.  Though  he  was  not  able  to  understand 
English,  he  attended  the  Conference  day  after 
day,  to  keep  in  spiritual  touch  with  it.  While 
the  meetings  were  in  progress,  I  noticed  him 
hour  after  hour  holding  a  little  pocket  note-book 
quietly  before  him.  After  two  or  three  days,  my 
curiosity  led  me  to  inquire  what  this  man  was 
doing,  with  his  note-book  out  in  front  of  him  so 
much  of  the  time.  I  was  told  that  this  was  his 
prayer-book  and  that  he  had  in  it  the  names  of 
over  1000  individuals  for  whom  he  was  praying 
regularly.  So  important  did  he  regard  prayer 
that  he  found  some  hours  each  day  for  this  form 
of  service. 

At  the  close  of  the  Conference  my  brother 
asked  Pastor  Ding  if  he  would  not  put  his  name 
on  the  list  of  those  for  whom  he  prayed.  Imagine 
his  amazement  when  the  reply  came:  **You  do 
not  need  to  make  that  request,  I  have  had  your 
name  on  my  list  for  a  long  time." 

Another  of  my  American  friends  some  time 
after  this  asked  Pastor  Ding  to  pray  for  him. 
He  gladly  consented  to  do  so.  My  friend's  num- 
ber is  1262.  How  many  American  Christians 
have  sixty-two  names  on  their  prayer-list,  to  say 
nothing  of  1262? 

This  man  is  no  fanatic.     He  has  been  used  of 

69 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

God  more  than  any  other  person  to  lead  several 
hundred  strong  Chinese  young  men  and  women  to 
devote  their  whole  lives  to  the  evangelization  of 
China.  When  asked  the  secret  of  his  success,  he 
replied:  '*I  have  only  one  method.     It  is  prayer." 

Would  it  not  be  safe  to  say:  ''Whoever  prays 
most  helps  most."  How  many  pastors  and  Sab- 
bath School  leaders,  and  Young  People's  workers 
and  Christian  disciples  generally,  will  adopt  this 
divine  prescription  for  filling  the  world  with  the 
needed  laborers ;  and  then  for  filling  the  laborers 
with  the  presence  and  power  of  God? 

Advantage  ought  also  to  be  taken  of  the 
special  promises  to  united  prayer  and  agreement 
in  prayer.  ''Again  I  say  unto  you  that  if  two  of 
you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching  anything 
that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  For  where  two  or 
three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."      Mat.  18:19-20. 

In  view  of  such  a  promise,  ought  there  not  to 
be  much  more  of  agreement  in  things  to  be 
prayed  for,  and  also  much  more  of  the  practice 
of  praying  in  small  groups  of  two  or  three? 

Among  other  objects  of  prayer  is  it  not  of 
great  importance  that  every  missionary  have  a 
group  of  intercessors  who  undertake  to  support 
him  and  his  work  habitually  by  prayer?  There 
are  many  hundreds  of  church  members  in  each 
denomination  to  every  missionary  who  has  been 
sent  to  the  front.      It  ought  surely  to  be  possible 

70 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

to  have  a  group  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
people  organized  into  a  definite  prayer  group  for 
the  spiritual  backing  and  support  of  each  mis- 
sionary and  the  work  to  which  he  is  related.  All 
the  organization  needed  would  be  to  have  some 
member  of  the  group  act  as  its  secretary,  to  re- 
ceive from  the  missionary  occasional  reports  of 
answered  prayer  and  additional  requests  for 
prayer.  These  could  be  duplicated  by  the  sec- 
retary of  the  group  and  sent  to  each  member.  It 
ought  not  to  be  expected  that  the  missionary 
would  be  able  to  write  personally  to  each  member 
of  the  group,  though  doubtless  it  would  be  well 
if  each  of  them  would  occasionally  write  to  him. 
It  is  my  firm  conviction  that  if  the  Church  were 
organized  in  this  way  as  a  definite  praying  force, 
the  spiritual  power  and  effectiveness  of  the 
whole  missionary  enterprise  would  probably  be 
doubled  without  adding  a  single  new  worker. 
The  same  method  applied  to  the  securing  of  ad- 
ditional workers  would  undoubtedly  secure  them, 
as  it  is  the  only  method  which  the  Master  Him- 
self felt  it  necessary  to  suggest. 

6.  For  the  sake  of  completeness  the  sixth 
element  of  a  worthy  life-purpose  is  here  men- 
tioned as  Giving.  As  this  subject  will  be  treated 
in  detail  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  only  passing 
reference  is  made  to  it  in  this  context.  But  the 
highest  use  of  possessions  is  one  of  the  fine  arts 
of  Christian  character,  and  inseparable  from  a 
complete  and  worthy  life-purpose. 

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MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

7.  The  seventh  element  in  a  Christian  life- 
purpose  will  likewise  be  dealt  with  in  a  later 
chapter,  but  is  mentioned  here  because  it  is  too 
important  to  be  omitted.  It  is  Leadership. 
There  is  wise  and  comprehensive  planning 
needed  and  it  is  open  to  anyone  to  plan  for  the 
Kingdom.  The  whole  Church  and  the  whole 
power  of  the  Church  are  to  be  enlisted:  How 
shall  it  be  done  ?  The  whole  world  is  to  be  evan- 
gelized: What  can  be  done  to  hasten  it?  These 
objectives  are  not  the  exclusive  preserves  of  offi- 
cial church  leaders.  Some  of  the  greatest  ad- 
vances of  all  Christian  history  have  been  led  by 
men  from  the  ranks.  Since  every  man's  field  is 
the  world,  the  winning  of  the  whole  world  is  each 
separate  person's  problem.  In  the  words  of  Dr.  D. 
Clay  Lilly,  "Let  us  study  how  to  do  this  thing,  not 
merely  how  to  get  it  done." 

8.  The  last  of  the  elements  of  a  worthy  life- 
purpose  to  be  mentioned  is  Goiyig.  In  some  real 
sense  every  disciple  must  go. 

*'And  Jesus  came  to  them  and  spake  unto 
them,  saying,  All  authority  hath  been  given  unto 
me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore, 
and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptising 
them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you;  and  lo, 
I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world."      Mat.  28:18-20. 

This  commission  contains  a  promise  that  we 

72 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 

all  want  to  claim.  But  we  have  no  right  to  the 
promise  unless  the  command  also  is  accepted  and 
followed. 

These  three  questions  have  helped  many  per- 
sons to  accept  both  the  commission  and  the 
promise  as  their  own : 

1.  Does  "go"  mean  stay? 

2.  Does  "ye"  mean  some  one  else  only? 

3.  Does  ''into  all  the  world"  mean  only  into 
any  one  part  of  it  alone? 

Manifestly  every  disciple  is  to  go  at  least  to 
those  within  his  reach.  He  is  also  to  be  ready  to 
go  to  the  furthest  field,  if  the  Lord  opens  the  way 
and  indicates  His  will.  He  is  to  ''go"  by  prayer 
and  gift  and  influence  to  the  uttermost  part  of 
the  earth,  even  if  he  cannot  go  in  person. 

He  is  to  let  others  "go"  who  feel  called  to  go. 
He  is  to  find  goers  and  to  help  those  to  go  who 
are  willing.  In  short  he  is  to  see  to  it  that  the 
commission  is  carried  out,  and  to  put  into  its 
execution  as  much  of  interest  and  love  and 
sacrifice  as  anyone  else  who  may  be  engaged  in 
the  entire  enterprise. 

The  spirit  of  Paul's  great  volunteer  declara- 
tion should  be  adopted  by  every  follower  of 
Christ:  "I  AM  DEBTOR  both  to  Greeks  and  to 
Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  foolish. 
SO  AS  MUCH  AS  IN  ME  IS  I  AM  READY  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  you  also  that  are  in  Rome. 
For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel;    For  it  is 

73 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 
that  believeth ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to'  the 
Greek."       Rom.  1:14-16. 

In  other  words,  in  the  condensed  summary 
suggested  by  Bishop  Henderson : 

1.  Every  man  needs  Christ. 

2.  Christ  is  able  to  meet  every  man's  need. 

3.  I  owe  to  every  man  everything  that 
Christ  means  to  me. 

There  is  no  middle  ground.  Attempting  to 
pay  25  or  50  cents  on  the  dollar  of  my  debt  is 
unsatisfactory  to  me  and  to  Christ  and  to  the 
world. 

Any  argument  that  would  lead  me  to  pay  a 
part  of  the  debt  would  compel  me  to  try  to  pay 
it  all. 

All  that  is  necessary  in  order  to  fill  the  world 
with  the  gospel  is  that  each  disciple  "treat  Jesus 
Christ  right,"  by  paying  his  honest  debt. 

"If  Christianity  is  worth  anything,  it  is 
worth  everything.  If  it  calls  for  any  measure 
of  warmth  and  zeal,  it  will  justify  the  utmost 
degrees  of  these.  There  is  no  consistent  medium 
between  reckless  atheism  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  intensest  warmth  of  religious  life  and  zeal 
on  the  other." 


74 


ELEMENTS  IN  A  WORTHY  LIFE  PURPOSE 


"God  wants  our  best.     He  in  the  far-off  ages 
Once  claimed  the  firstling  of  the  flock,  the  finest  of  the 

wheat 
And  still  He  asks  His  own  with  gentlest  pleading 
To  lay  their  highest  hopes  and  brightest  talents  at  His 

feet. 
He'll  not  forget  the  feeblest  service,  humblest  love. 
He  only  asks  that  of  our  store,  we  give  to  Him  the  best 

we  have. 

"Christ  gives  the  best.      He  takes  the  hearts  we  offer 
And  fills  them  with  His  glorious  beauty,  joy  and  peace, 
And  in  His  service  as  we're  growing  stronger, 
The  calls  to  grand  achievement  still  increase. 
The    richest    gifts    for    us    on    earth,    or   in    the    heaven 

above, 
Are   hid   in    Christ.      In   Jesus    we    receive   the   best    we 
have. 

"And  is  our  best  too  much?      0  friends,  let  us  remember. 
How  once  our  Lord  poured  out  His  soul  for  us. 
And  in  the  prime  of  His  mysterious  manhood. 
Gave  up  His  precious  life  upon  the  cross. 
The  Lord  of  Lords,  by  whom  the  worlds  were  made. 
Through   bitter   grief   and   tears,    gave    us   the   best    He 
had." 


75 


Knowledge  That  is  Power 

How  much  does  a  person  need  to  know  in 
order  to  be  the  largest  possible  factor  in  extend- 
ing the  Kingdom  of  Christ  throughout  the 
world  ? 

He  needs  to  know  what  God's  plan  for  re- 
deeming the  world  is.  This  will  mean  a  life  of 
Bible  study. 

He  needs  to  know  how  the  Kingdom  has 
progressed  thus  far,  what  obstacles  it  has  met 
and  what  triumphs  it  has  won.  This  will  mean 
a  knowledge  of  all  the  past. 

He  needs  to  know  what  the  Church  as  a  whole 
and  his  own  particular  church  have  done,  are 
doing  and  are  planning  to  do  to  complete  the 
work  of  evangelizing  the  world.  This  is  not 
knowledge  that  will  be  gained  without  prolonged 
and  painstaking  effort. 

He  needs  to  know  the  failure  of  non- 
Christian  religions  and  the  vast  intellectual, 
physical,  moral  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  nations 
in  spiritual  darkness. 

He  needs  to  know  the  adequacy  of  the  gospel 
to  meet  all  the  deepest  needs  of  mankind.  His 
working  creed  might  be  summarized  in  the 
slogan,  ''Christ  for  every  life  and  for  all  of  life." 
To  know  with  any  fullness  what  Christ  has  al- 

76 


KNOWLEDGE   THAT  IS  POWER 

ready  wrought  in  behalf  of  childhood,  in  behalf 
of  womanhood,  in  behalf  of  manhood,  in  behalf 
of  human  society  and  government  and  civiliza- 
tion and  brotherhood  and  peace,  this  is  to  know 
not  only  biography  and  history  but  the  deepest 
secrets  of  human  development  and  achievement 
and  future  possibility. 

How  can  one  feel  the  weight  of  the  world's 
need  unless  he  knows  these  things?  How  can 
he  pray  as  he  ought  unless  he  is  touched  with 
the  compassion  that  comes  through  knowledge? 
How  can  he  give  as  he  ought  unless  the  need  has 
penetrated  his  soul?  How  can  he  inspire  others 
to  take  their  part  in  the  world-program  unless  he 
is  familiar  with  the  whole  undertaking  and  is 
fully  committed  to  the  work  himself? 

How  to  become  and  to  keep  really  intelligent 
one's  self,  and  how  to  get  and  keep  the  whole 
church  intelligent  in  these  matters  of  deepest 
significance,  is  enough  to  tax  the  resources  of  the 
greatest  educational  leaders  living. 

It  is  desirable  for  us  to  study  some  of  the 
main  channels  of  such  knowledge.  Nothing 
less  than  a  carefully  wrought  out  educational 
program,  prayerfully  and  persistently  carried 
through  in  each  congregation  is  sufficient  to  meet 
this  great  need. 

1.  Beyond  question  the  pastor  must  be  the 
chief  missionary  educator  of  the  masses  of 
Christian  people.  And  there  is  probably  no 
other  field  of  human  knowledge  from  which  he 

77 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

can  bring  to  the  average  congregation  so  much 
that  is  new,  startling  and  inspiring  as  is  avail- 
able from  the  wide  field  of  missionary  opera- 
tions. Only  an  occasional  pastor  has  yet  learned 
how  rich  a  goldmine  this  is  of  fact,  suggestion 
and  illustration.  While  special  missionary  ser- 
mons will  doubtless  be  wise  occasionally,  those 
pastors  who  are  saturated  with  missionary  in- 
formation and  the  missionary  spirit,  and  who  let 
it  come  out  normally  in  all  of  their  preaching, 
their  prayers  and  their  contacts  with  life,  are 
those  who.  make  the  deepest  impression.  Only 
the  pastor  who  regards  the  whole  world  as  his 
field  will  ever  succeed  in  lifting  his  church  up  to 
its  maximum  missionary  interest  and  efficiency. 
This  can  only  be  felt  adequately  when  one  gets 
beyond  thinking  merely  in  congregational  or  de- 
nominational terms,  and  yields  his  life  to  the 
achievement  of  Kingdom  objectives. 

The  two  questions  which  the  most  powerful 
men  are  ever  asking  themselves  are  these: 

1.  What  needs  to  be  done  in  the  world? 

2.  How  can  I  best  help  to  do  it? 

Multitudes  of  men  are  forever  tied  down  to 
the  particular  little  task  that  they  are  officially 
responsible  for.  "Study  larger  maps,"  and  take 
your  part  as  an  intelligent  and  important  con- 
structive factor  in  shaping  history  and  lifting 
the  whole  world  up  into  fellowship  with  God. 

2.    Along  with  the  pastor,  it  is  of  the  greatest 

78 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

importance  rJii.:  ..c  —  :ers  of  the  congregation, 
including  the  o3Scers  of  every  organization  with- 
in the  congregati  t  ir  their  vital  relation 
to  the  whole  mis^.  i^^ry  ,:r:blem  and  make  it  a 
matter  of  most  earnest  study.  In  too  many 
cases,  when  a  pastor  leaves  a  church,  the  mis- 
sionary interest  and  offerings  are  allowed  to  lag 
and  decline.  This  is  not  to  the  credit  of  the 
pastor.  His  method  must  have  been  fataT:  in- 
fective if  such  a  result  follows  his  depar:-ire. 
The  wise  leader  will  take  pains  so  to  share  his 
deepest  life  and  convictions  with  other  re  :  : - 
sible  leaders  iu  the  congregation  that  even  .-ic:i 
he  is  gone,  the  work  will  go  on.  In  this  respect 
the  Women's  Missionary  Societies  are  notable 
illustrations  of  the  possibilities.  They  go  on  in 
much  the  same  way  whether  a  i)astor  is  present 
or  not,  and  their  contributions  do  not  show  the 
variations  that  are  common  in  congregations  as 
a  whole. 

That  is  the  highest  leadership  that  so  trains 
associates  that  the  work  is  not  seriously  impeded 
by  the  withdrawal  of  any  one  person.  The 
heads  of  every  Christian  organization  within  the 
Church  have  need  to  learn  this  lesson.  If  their 
policies  are  to  be  continued,  they  must  take  pains 
to  train  a  group  of  associates  in  the  actual 
leadership  of  the  work  while  they  are  in  charge 
of  it  and  so  are  in  a  position  to  do  so  naturally. 

The  short-sighted  and  ineffective  way  to  do 
is     t:     atter::pt     to     carry    the     work    through 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

single-handed,  neglecting  the  enlistment  and 
training  of  associates.  It  is  to  be  feared  that 
many  preachers  and  other  Christian  leaders  fre- 
quently fall  into  this  grievous  error. 

3.  The  third  natural  step  in  an  adequate 
program  of  missionary  education  for  a  congre- 
gation is  the  development  of  a  strong  missionary 
department  in  connection  with  every  organiza- 
tion within  the  church.  This  would  include  the 
Sabbath  School,  the  Young  People's  Society,  the 
Men's  Society,  the  Organized  Bible  Class,  and 
the  Women's  Society,  together  with  any  other 
organizations  in  the  church.  There  are  now 
available  well  wrought  out  plans  of  education  for 
all  of  these  various  agencies. 

New  textbooks  on  timely  and  vital  missionary 
subjects  are  prepared  each  year.  Experienced 
leaders  draw  up  a  comprehensive  program  of 
missionary  education  year  by  year,  suggesting 
the  various  ways  in  which  the  available  books, 
programs,  etc.,  may  be  used  with  greatest 
advantage  and  results.  The  clearing  house  for 
most  of  this  rich  and  diversified  educational 
material  is  the  Missionary  Education  Move- 
ment. No  alert  pastor  or  missionary  committee 
can  neglect  for  a  single  year  the  study  of  this 
material  and  the  accompanying  suggestions 
without  immeasurable  loss  to  the  whole  cause  of 
Christ  in  the  world.  And  yet  only  a  fraction  of 
the  pastors  are  making  any  use  whatever  of 
these  splendid  helps  at  the  present  time.      It  is 

80 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

SO  much  easier  to  keep  on  in  the  old  rut.  It 
needs  to  be  remembered  that  when  a  rut  becomes 
deep  enough  it  becomes  a  grave! 

There  still  remain  some  general  methods  of 
missionary  education  that  apply  most  properly 
to  the  whole  congregation.  Among  these  should 
be  mentioned: 

a.  A  monthly  missionary  meeting  of  the 
congregation  as  a  whole.  This  may  take  the 
place  either  of  a  mid-week  prayer  service  or  of  a 
Sabbath  evening  church  service.  The  programs 
can  either  be  arranged  by  the  Church  Missionary 
Committee  or  by  the  various  Missionary  Depart- 
ments of  the  different  organizations  within  the 
church,  in  turn.  For  example,  the  Men's  Society 
may  take  charge  of  this  meeting  one  month,  the 
Women's  Society  the  next,  the  Sunday  School 
the  next,  and  the  Young  People's  Society  the 
next.  One  plan  for  conducting  this  monthly 
popular  meeting  that  has  worked  admirably  is  to 
spend  a  part  of  the  time  in  a  rapid  survey  of  the 
world  by  seven  or  more  persons.  To  one  man 
might  be  assigned  for  a  period  of  six  months  or 
more,  the  topic  of  reaching  the  immigrants  with 
the  gospel.  He  should  be  given  two  or  three 
minutes  at  each  monthly  meeting  to  report  the 
most  interesting  facts  he  has  been  able  to  dis- 
cover during  the  month  on  this  topic.  Another 
person  might  be  assigned  the  field  of  Latin 
America;  another,  Africa;  another,  the  Moslem 
World;     another,    India;     another,    Japan    and 

81 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

Korea;  another,  China.  By  this  plan  a  fresh 
look  at  each  of  the  great  fields  of  the  world  can 
be  taken  each  month.  The  facts  brought  out 
should  be  made  the  occasion  of  prayer  for  these 
fields  and  their  special  needs.  After  the  general 
survey  has  been  made,  there  will  still  be  time  to 
take  up  some  other  theme  in  a  fuller  treatment. 
Experience  proves  that  sustained  study  of  one 
field  after  this  simple  plan  often  results  in  great 
interest  being  aroused  on  the  part  of  the  one  to 
whom  the  field  has  been  assigned,  in  addition  to 
the  information  which  he  gathers  and  gives  to 
the  whole  congregation.  The  most  important 
principle  to  safeguard  in  connection  with  all 
meetings  of  this  character  is  that  a  considerable 
number  of  people  take  part  in  each  service.  People 
learn  by  doing.  They  are  more  impressed  by  what 
they  express  than  by  what  others  say  to  them. 
''Expression  deepens  impression"  is  one  of  the 
laws  of  education  that  should  be  recognized  far 
more  fully  in  all  of  our  churches.  No  wonder 
the  preacher  is  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
his  message.  Every  time  he  opens  his  mouth  to 
talk  about  it  the  reaction  upon  his  own  soul  is 
deepened.  But  what  chance  is  there  for  the  per- 
son who  sits  dumb  through  the  years  and  gives 
no  open  expression  to  his  best  thoughts  and  con- 
victions? The  wonder  is  that  any  spiritual  life 
can  survive  this  hampering  process.  To  discover 
adequate  opportunities  for  the  life  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  to  express  itself  is  one  of  the 

82 


KNOWLEDGE   THAT  IS  POWER 

greatest  and  most  neglected  privileges  and  duties 
of  pastors  and  church  officers. 

A  man  was  asked  whether  he  knew  another 
man  in  the  same  town.  ''Know  him?"  he  ex- 
claimed, "Why,  I've  slept  with  that  man  in  the 
same  church  for  twenty  years."  Nothing  but  a 
proper  amount  of  personal  exercise  and  expres- 
sion will  keep  the  average  Christian  awake.  The 
most  impressive  address  one  ever  hears,  in  its 
effect  on  one's  own  life,  is  the  address  one  makes 
himself.  That  meeting  is  always  a  good  one  to 
you  that  you  help  to  make.  A  man  can  often 
persuade  himself  of  something  that  no  one  else 
has  ever  been  able  to  persuade  him  of.  We  had 
a  good  illustration  of  this  principle  in  one  of  our 
Laymen's  Missionary  campaigns.  We  appealed 
for  laymen  to  go  out  as  volunteers  and  speak  on 
missions  in  various  churches.  It  is,  of  course, 
always  wise  to  send  out  these  inexperienced  men 
with  others  who  have  larger  experience.  So  a 
vigorous  new  recruit  who  volunteered  was  sent 
out  for  a  week  of  special  meetings  with  an  ex- 
perienced secretary,  the  two  men  being  scheduled 
to  speak  together  in  a  different  town  each  night. 

On  the  opening  evening  the  new  layman 
spoke  very  briefly,  but  closed  up  his  remarks  by 
saying  that  he  had  recently  become  so  deeply  in- 
terested in  missions  that  he  had  decided  to  give 
$25.00  to  this  cause  this  year  himself.  It  was 
evident  from  his  manner  of  announcing  the  fact 
that  this  was  many  times  his  past  contribution. 

83 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

The  next  night  in  another  community,  when  this 
same  man  got  to  the  climax  of  his  speech,  his 
friend  who  was  traveling  with  him  was  startled 
to  hear  him  say  that  he  had  decided  to  give 
$50.00  this  year  to  missions!  This  was  the 
prompt  effect  of  his  own  speech  upon  himself! 

The  following  night,  when  he  got  to  the  final 
flourish  of  his  address,  he  doubled  his  subscrip- 
tion again !  At  the  end  of  the  week  of  speaking 
he  decided  to  support  a  missionary  of  his 
own  at  $600  a  year. 

Twenty-five  dollars  looked  big  to  him  the  first 
night.  In  a  single  week  he  persuaded  himself  to 
multiply  this  by  twenty-four.  There  is  no  other 
way  to  get  men  to  give  so  liberally  as  to  set  them 
at  work  as  advocates  of  a  good  cause.  As  they 
think  through  the  case  for  themselves,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  state  it  forcibly  to  others,  it  will  take 
far  more  powerful  hold  upon  themselves  than  it 
ever  did  before. 

b.  A  good  working  missionary  library,  kept 
in  constant  circulation,  is  essential  to  an  adequate 
educational  program.  Brains  and  skill  are 
necessary  to  get  the  maximum  dividends  out  of 
such  equipment.  But  no  thorough  education  is 
possible  without  it.  To  begin  with,  such  a 
library  should  contain  the  best  books  on  each  of 
the  great  mission  fields,  some  strong  book  on 
each  of  the  great  non-Christian  religions,  and  a 
dozen  or  more  of  the  best  missionary  biog- 
raphies.     There  should  be  added  a  number  of 

84 


KNOWLEDGE   THAT  IS  POWER 

new  books  each  year,  including  the  text-books 
published  each  year  by  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  and  the  Missionary  Education  Move- 
ment. To  these  should  be  added  the  books  in  the 
''Library  of  Christian  Progress"  published  by 
the  Missionary  Education  Movement  at  the  uni- 
form price  of  50  cents  each.  In  many  instances 
it  is  an  easy  matter  to  get  all  of  these  books  and 
others  also  into  the  Public  Library,  if  it  is  re- 
quested by  the  Ministers'  Union,  or  any  other 
influential  group  of  citizens.  Special  attention 
should  be  given  to  keeping  the  Church  people  of 
the  community  informed  about  what  missionary 
books  are  available.  One  of  the  important  regu- 
lar duties  of  the  missionary  committee  in  each 
church  should  be  to  stimulate  the  reading  of  such 
literature. 

c.  Another  important  method  is  the  securing 
of  subscribers  to  church  and  missionary  periodi- 
cals. Every  missionary  committee  should  make  a 
systematic  effort  once  each  year  to  get  every  fam- 
ily in  the  church  to  subscribe  for  the  most  impor- 
tant denominational  and  interdenominational  mis- 
sionary periodicals. 

What  missionary  periodicals  are  essential  to 
the  minister  or  any  other  person  who  would  keep 
informed  comprehensively  on  this  many-sided 
subject? 

First  of  all  should  come  one's  own  denomi- 
national Missionary  Magazine.  This  is  indis- 
pensable.     Only    second    to    this    in    importance 

85 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

is  THE  MISSIONARY  REVIEW  OF  THE 
WORLD,  which  keeps  one  in  touch  with  the  gen- 
eral progress  of  missions  in  all  fields  and  in  all 
denominations.  All  pastors  and  all  men  who 
serve  on  Missionary  Committees  should  regu- 
larly read  MEN  AND  MISSIONS,  the  official 
organ  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 
and  the  best  means  of  keeping  informed  about 
the  cultivation  of  the  whole  church  as  a  mission- 
ary force.  Wherever  there  are  boys  and  girls  in 
a  home,  the  magazine,  EVERYLAND  is  of  great 
value.  Those  who  would  be  fully  informed  on 
the  church's  progress  in  reaching  Mohammedans 
should  read  "THE  MOSLEM  WORLD,"  a  quar- 
terly edited  by  Dr.  Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  of  Cairo. 
The  most  scientific  and  scholarly  of  all  the  gen- 
eral missionary  magazines  is  "THE  INTER- 
NATIONAL REVIEW  OF  MISSIONS,"  pub- 
lished by  the  Continuation  Committee  of  the 
World  Missionary  Conference.  This  list  may 
look  rather  formidable,  but  the  total  cost  of  all 
those  periodicals  would  only  be  from  seven  dol- 
lars to  seven  dollars  and  a  half  a  year,  depending 
on  the  cost  of  the  denominational  magazine.  If 
one  family  cannot  afford  to  secure  all  this  litera- 
ture, by  grouping  two  or  four  families  together 
the  cost  to  each  could  be  reduced  to  four  dollars 
or  two  dollars  per  family  per  year.  This  expense 
is  insignificant  in  view  of  the  value  of  the  in- 
fluences released  in  the  home  and  the  church 
through  these  records  of  the  wonder-working  of 

86 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

God  in  the  world.  (A  list  of  these  magazines 
with  their  subscription  prices  may  be  found  in 
the  Appendix,  page  192.) 

d.  The  circulation  of  selected  pamphlets  and 
leaflets  during  the  year,  and  especially  during  the 
special  educational  campaign  preceding  each  an- 
nual organized  canvass  for  missionary  subscrip- 
tions is  of  great  value.  These  pamphlets  should 
be  purchased  in  quantities  and  distributed  per- 
sonally at  the  close  of  the  church  service  by  the 
members  of  the  missionary  committee. 

Nearly  very  Mission  Board  publishes  several 
such  pamphlets  each  year,  and  either  offers  them 
without  charge,  or  at  the  mere  cost  of  printing 
and  postage.  The  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment and  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  have 
also  developed  a  wonderfully  rich  pamphlet  liter- 
ature. You  can  often  get  a  person  to  read  a 
pamphlet  when  he  might  not  be  willing  to  read 
a  book.  If  this  condensed  form  of  missionary 
education  were  appraised  at  its  real  value,  many 
millions  of  leaflets  and  pamphlets  would  be  dis- 
tributed each  year  in  American  churches. 

e.  Organized  Mission  Study  Classes  have 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  powerful  means  of 
missionary  education.  A  great  array  of  suitable 
text-books  for  such  study  has  been  prepared. 
Most  of  them  are  arranged  in  eight  chapters, — 
to  be  used  by  a  class  one  evening  each  week  for 
eight  weeks.  The  classes  are  generally  small,  so 
that  every  member  can  express  himself  at  every 

87 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

meeting.  Such  co-operative  and  intensive  study 
must  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  best  proved 
methods  of  creating  a  church  that  is  intelHgent 
on  missions.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason  for 
not  having  some  of  these  classes  in  every  con- 
gregation each  year. 

To  meet  the  special  demands  for  a  still 
briefer  course,  especially  for  men's  missionary 
discussion  groups,  two  text-books  of  four  chap- 
ters each  have  already  been  issued,  and  others 
are  in  course  of  preparation.  These  are  books 
at  twenty-five  cents  each,  in  size  convenient  to 
be  carried  in  the  pocket  and  read  on  street  cars 
or  at  other  times  which  otherwise  are  often 
wasted.  Many  thousands  of  these  little  books 
have  been  sold  and  a  large  number  of  Men's  Dis- 
cussion Groups  have  used  them  as  a  basis  for 
their  study  and  discussion.  If  the  practical  in- 
terest and  value  of  such  discussion  is  presented 
forcibly  to  the  men  at  a  suitable  season  at  least 
once  each  year,  and  definite  plans  are  outlined  by 
which  they  may  pursue  one  of  these  courses  by 
giving  to  it  one  evening  each  week  for  one 
month,  it  will  be  found  that  large  numbers  of 
men  can  be  led  to  an  independent  investigation 
and  consideration  of  missions  that  may  prove  of 
great  and  permanent  value  to  them. 

f.  Supplementing  all  these  methods,  it  has 
been  found  to  be  of  enormous  help,  once  each 
year,  to  have  a  sustained  period  of  consideration 
of   missionary    problems    in    each    congregation, 

88 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

immediately  preceding  the  annual  canvass  for 
subscriptions.  From  four  to  six  weeks  have 
been  found  desirable  for  such  cultivation.  Dur- 
ing this  period  every  possible  avenue  of  approach 
should  be  used  to  bring  the  whole  congregation 
under  a  fresh  and  fuller  realization  of  the  sig- 
nificance and  urgency  of  the  whole  missionary 
problem.  All  of  the  above  mentioned  methods 
should  be  used,  together  with  other  special 
features  worked  out  by  individual  churches,  to 
lay  the  missionary  burden  heavily  upon  the  heart 
of  every  member.  Such  a  preparation  of  heart 
and  mind  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  highest 
success  of  any  organized  financial  canvass. 

It  must  be  apparent  to  anyone  that  if  such  a 
program  of  education  is  carried  out,  it  will  re- 
quire skilful  and  persistent  work  on  the  part  of 
a  few  leaders.  It  has  been  assumed  that  a 
Church  Missionary  Committee  is  in  existence  in 
every  congregation  that  is  making  any  serious 
eifort  to  measure  up  to  its  missionary  obligation. 
Such  a  committee  is  essential  to  the  best  results. 
It  should  be  officially  appointed  and  should  be  re- 
vised annually,  and  be  given  every  possible  sup- 
port in  its  work.  This  Committee  will  need  to 
spend  an  unhurried  evening  together  once  each 
month  in  conference  and  prayer,  if  they  do  the 
work  open  to  them  in  the  congregation. 

All  the  methods  of  missionary  education  sug- 
gested thus  far  are  for  use  in  the  individual  con- 
gregation  or  parish.     There   remain   two   other 

89 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

special   methods   of   approach   to   be   mentioned. 

1.  Deputations  of  men  visiting  churches 
within  a  given  area. 

2.  Interdenominational  conferences  and  con- 
ventions. 

It  has  be^n  found  by  experience  that  a  church 
is  often  greatly  stimulated  by  the  visit  of  a  depu- 
tation of  two  or  three  men  from  some  other  con- 
gregation or  community.  Many  laymen  have 
been  discovered  and  developed  who  do  this  work 
admirably.  The  laymen  are  more  free  to  parti- 
cipate in  such  work  inasmuch  as  most  of  it  can 
best  be  done  at  the  regular  church  services  on  the 
Lord's  day. 

By  way  of  illustration  of  the  great  possibili- 
ties of  this  form  of  work,  two  laymen  in  one 
Baptist  Association  in  North  Carolina  visited  the 
twenty-eight  congregations  in  that  Association, 
spending  as  a  rule  one  entire  Lord's  day  with 
each  congregation.  They  not  only  presented  the 
reasons  for  enlarged  missionary  interest  and 
consecration,  but  also  the  methods  found  best  to 
secure  larger  results.  Before  they  left  they  had 
a  series  of  resolutions  passed  by  each  congrega- 
tion, adopting  (1)  the  weekly  plan  of  missionary 
offerings,  (2)  the  annual  organized  personal 
canvass  for  missionary  subscriptions  and  (3) 
the  fixing  of  a  definite  amount  that  the  congrega- 
tion would  aim  to  raise  that  year  for  missionary 
purposes. 

There  were  many  helpful  results  of  this  sys- 

90 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

tematic  effort.  Its  success  on  the  financial  side 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  these  twenty-eight 
congregations  increased  their  total  missionary 
offerings  that  year  by  an  average  of  95%. 
Similar  systematic  cultivation  is  being  given 
groups  of  churches  in  many  parts  of  America. 
The  work  may  be  done  either  denominationally 
or  interdenominationally.  Perhaps  the  best  ex- 
perience thus  far  would  favor  its  being  done  de- 
nominationally. 

The  other  form  of  promoting  missionary  in- 
telligence that  has  been  specially  powerful  has 
been  the  interdenominational  convention  or  con- 
ference. No  other  single  method  has  been  so 
effective  as  this  in  gaining  the  attention  of  men 
uninterested  in  missions,  in  overcoming  their 
prejudice  and  in  inspiring  them  to  take  hold 
seriously  of  the  work  of  missions.  Large  num- 
bers of  these  conventions  and  conferences  have 
been  held  by  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment, which  was  first  organized  in  1906,  the 
number  of  conferences  in  the  season  of  1913-14 
alone  being  about  four  hundred  and  fifty.  It  is 
found  helpful  to  have  such  gatherings  about  once 
every  two  years  in  all  the  larger  communities. 
The  peculiar  power  of  these  meetings  in  which 
all  churches  are  represented  lies  largely  in  the  fact 
that  the  whole  task  of  the  entire  Church  can  thus 
be  considered  by  the  representatives  of  all  the 
churches  of  any  community.  This  gives  a  sense 
of  unity,   solidarity,   and  power  that  cannot  be 

91 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

secured  in  separate  denominational  assemblies. 
So  long  as  the  Church  is  divided  into  many  dif- 
ferent communions,  some  agency  will  be  needed 
to  bring  them  all  together  in  this  co-operative 
fashion.  The  unprecedented  missionary  advance 
of  the  past  few  years  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada  has  been  largely  due  to  this  united  ap- 
proach to  the  subject.  The  advance  in  contribu- 
tions to -home  and  foreign  missions  during  the 
past  ten  years  has  been  nearly  100%,  and  in 
some  entire  communions  considerably  more  than 
this. 

It  is  only  a  step  from  the  united  consideration 
of  the  missionary  problem  at  home,  to  the  united 
study  of  the  problem  as  a  whole  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  churches  abroad.  Recently 
there  has  occurred  the  most  extensive  and 
thorough  co-operative  study  of  missionary  prob- 
lems yet  undertaken  on  the  foreign  mission 
fields,  in  a  series  of  conferences  conducted  by  the 
Continuation  Committee  of  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference. Both  abroad  and  at  home  the  forces  of 
Christendom  are  rapidly  coming  to  act  in  a  co- 
operative instead  of  an  isolated  way.  This  co- 
operation has  gone  so  far  in  some  fields  abroad 
as  to  lead  to  a  complete  subdivision  of  the  terri- 
tory between  the  various  communions.  It  is 
notable  also  that  even  in  the  matter  of  theologi- 
cal education  it  has  been  found  possible  to  do  the 
work  admirably  in  union  institutions.  Missions 
are  coming  to  be  recognized  increasingly  as  one 

92 


KNOWLEDGE  THAT  IS  POWER 

of  the  mightiest  forces  in  the  promotion  of  that 
true  spiritual  unity  of  the  Church  for  which  our 
Lord  prayed. 


93 


Effective  Missionary  Speaking 

It  seems  desirable  in  this  connection  to  give 
some  careful  consideration  to  what  constitutes 
effective  missionary  speaking.  This  is  a  matter 
of  vital  interest  not  only  to  pastors  but  to  all  lay- 
men who  desire  to  make  their  lives  count  largely 
in  making  the  Church  the  force  she  is  capable  of 
becoming.  The  following  suggestions  are  made 
up  from  actual  observation  of  missionary  speak- 
ing that  hits  the  mark. 

1.  Give  information  rather  than  exhorta- 
tion. "An  audience  is  always  interested  when  it 
is  learning."  Appeals  soon  get  tiresome.  Let 
the  facts  be  the  main  appeal.  The  chief  weak- 
ness of  much  missionary  speaking  is  that  it  is 
long  on  exhortation  and  short  on  facts. 

2.  Deal  largely  in  the  concrete,  and  tie  up 
facts  and  principles  with  personality.  People 
are  interested  more  in  persons  than  in  principles. 
The  Bible  is  written  in  terms  of  personality. 
Use  illustrations  and  stories  to  enforce  general 
facts  and  principles.  Avoid  also  the  peril  of 
merely  telling  anecdotes  and  not  relating  them 
closely  to  general  missionary  facts  and  consider- 
ations. 

3.  Be  human.  Let  the  emotions  as  well  as 
the  intelligence  be  stirred.      Study  points  of  con- 

94 


EFFECTIVE   MISSIONARY   SPEAKING 

tact  with  the  audience.  Don't  begin  your  ad- 
dress at  a  point  too  far  removed  from  common 
experience.  Humor  that  is  not  forced  is  a  help, 
if  it  is  not  overdone.  Human  problems,  like 
illiteracy,  poverty,  suffering,  make  a  powerful 
appeal  to  people,  and  may  open  their  hearts  to 
the  deeper  spiritual  needs.  ''Out  of  the  heart 
are  the  issues  of  life."  We  are  governed  not  so 
much  by  what  we  know  as  by  what  we  feel. 

Illustrations  of  the  unnecessary  suffering  in 
the  world  where  Christ  is  not  known  are  very 
valuable.  If  these  can  be  accompanied  by  object- 
lessons,  however  simple,  their  value  is  much 
increased. 

4.  Present  any  topic  in  its  widest  relations. 
Study  to  give  comprehensive  views. 

If  speaking  of  a  Hindu  inquirer  let  his  case 
illustrate  some  situation  in  Hinduism  generally. 

If  telling  about  work  in  your  own  district  let 
it  illustrate  the  conditions  in  a  whole  nation. 

Think  and  speak  in  terms  of  the  whole  King- 
dom rather  than  merely  of  your  own  denomina- 
tion. Of  course,  it  is  helpful  to  use  denomina- 
tional facts  for  illustration,  but  they  should  not 
obscure  the  larger  work  of  the  whole  Church. 
Every  Christian  has  a  right  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  success  of  the  whole  army  of  Christ,  and  also 
needs  the  challenge  of  the  whole  world's  need. 

5.  Study  the  value  of  the  eye  in  acquiring 
knowledge.  About  80%  of  all  we  learn  comes  to 
us  through  the  eye.      Maps,  charts,  and  object 

95 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

lessons  of  all  kinds  are,  therefore,  of  great  as- 
sistance in  picturing  the  missionary  situation. 
They  double  the  power  of  many  a  speaker.  They 
are  also  of  much  help  in  arousing  the  attention 
and  interest  of  a  tired  audience.  ''What  gets 
your  attention  gets  you." 

6.  Meet  criticisms  of  missions  indirectly,  as 
a  rule,  without  advertising  them. 

7.  Study  accuracy  in  statement.  Many  a 
good  cause  is  weakened  by  exaggeration.  One 
statement  by  a  speaker,  recognized  as  not  true  by 
a  hearer,  casts  doubt  on  all  the  rest  he  may  say. 

8.  Study  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  needs  of 
the  people  in  the  audience.  Missions  furnish 
splendid  opportunity  for  this.  Exalt  Christ, 
that  seeing  Him,  all  may  be  enriched. 

9.  Be  the  incarnation  of  all  you  ask  of 
others. 

Unless  a  man  is  a  message,  he  cannot  speak  a 
message  of  any  power.  Give  what  you  ask  and 
then  ask  what  you  will.  Remember  that  it  is 
often  true : 

''What  you  are  speaks  so  loud  that  I  cannot 
hear  what  you  say." 

"The  depth  from  which  our  words  are  spoken 
is  the  measure  of  the  depth  at  which  they  will  be 
heard." 

Only  a  consuming  conviction  will  burn  its 
way  deeply  and  permanently  into  other  hearts 
and  lives. 

"No  great  reform  will  accomplish  more  than 

96 


EFFECTIVE   MISSIONARY   SPEAKING 

is  latent  in  the  character  of  the  reformer." 
There  is  a  deposit  of  character  back  of  all  words. 

*'No  more  comes  out  of  men  than  is  in  them." 

''Intense  conviction,  showing  itself  in  intense 
personality,  marks  the  difference  between  an  or- 
dinary leader,  or  counselor,  and  an  exceptional 
one.  It  was  not  the  number  of  his  soldiers,  but 
his  power  to  use  every  man  as  if  he  were  ten 
men,  or  a  hundred  that  made  Napoleon,  or  Phil. 
Sheridan,  the  general  he  was.  Surely  he  who 
has  Christ  back  of  him  in  his  every  word  and  his 
every  deed  ought  to  feel  that  he  is  wielding  the 
power  of  the  Almighty  when  he  acts  or  speaks 
for  his  Saviour  in  that  Saviour's  work." 

10.  Have  a  definite  and  great  purpose  in  all 
missionary  speaking. 

It  is  not  mere  entertainment  or  information 
the  people  need.  It  is  conviction,  consecration, 
action,  devotion,  to  the  end  that  the  will  of  God 
may  actually  be  done  among  men.  To  this  end, 
inform  the  minds,  arouse  the  feelings,  but  never 
be  satisfied  without  trying  to  move  the  wills  of 
those  to  whom  you  speak. 

Only  the  knowledge  that  finds  expression  in 
appropriate  action  is  of  the  highest  value  to 
men.  If  one  has  his  mind  persuaded,  and  his 
heart  touched,  but  fails  to  make  the  proper  re- 
sponse through  his  will,  it  is  a  serious  question 
whether  he  is  not  injured  rather  than  helped. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  optical  illusion.  But 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  a  more  common  ex- 

97 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

perience  is  emotional  illusion.  Many  people 
have  been  deeply  moved  emotionally  by  some 
stirring  appeal  and  have  felt  profoundly  that 
something  must  be  done  to  meet  the  need  and 
have  then  gone  away  and  done  nothing.  They 
seem  to  have  deceived  themselves  into  believing 
that  the  important  thing  is  feeling  right  about 
the  subject,  rather  than  acting  right  in  view  of 
the  facts.  But  proper  conceptions  and  appro- 
priate feelings  are  meant  to  be  the  springboard 
for  consistent  action.  Until  the  will  has  acted 
the  person  has  not  acted.  It  is  of  great  im- 
portance therefore  that  the  educational  process 
be  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion,  and  that  all 
new  knowledge  issue  in  worthy  action. 

The  widespread  indifference  of  the  Church  to 
missions  must  somehow  be  overcome.  Indis- 
pensable in  this  process  is  it  that  the  Church 
should  become  and  be  kept  intelligent.  Christ 
Himself  calls  upon  His  followers  to  lift  up  their 
eyes  and  look  on  the  fields.  In  other  words, 
study  missions.  Study  that  you  may  pray 
aright.  Study  that  you  may  work  efficiently. 
Study  that  you  may  give  adequately.  No  one  is 
apt  to  live  beyond  his  knowledge  in  any  of  these 
vital  respects.  Christ  gave  four  commands, 
obedience  to  which  would  lead  to  the  speedy  so- 
lution of  the  missionary  problem : 

1.  Know        John  4:35. 

2.  Pray  Mat.  9 :38,  Mat.  6 :9-10. 

98 


EFFECTIVE   MISSIONARY  SPEAKING 

3.  Love  John   13:34. 

See  also  1  John  3:16-17. 

4.  Witness     Acts  1:8. 


The  restless  millions  wait 
The  light  whose  dawning 
Maketh  all  things  new; 

Christ  also  waits, 
But  men  are  slow  and  late 
Will  we  do  what  we  can? 
Will  I?        Will  you? 


99 


Money  and  the  Kingdom 

Money  is  a  good  servant  but  a  bad  master. 
The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil. 
It  will  produce  these  evil  results  in  the  life  of  the 
poor  as  well  as  of  the  rich,  if  the  love  of  gain  is 
allowed  to  dominate  the  life. 

The  perils  of  prosperity  were  clearly  seen  and 
emphasized  by  Moses  away  back  in  the  early 
days  of  Hebrew  history.  "Beware  lest  thou 
forget  Jehovah  thy  God  in  not  keeping  His 
commandments,  and  His  ordinances,  and  His 
statutes,  which  I  command  thee  this  day;  Lest, 
when  thou  hast  eaten  and  art  full,  and  hast  built 
goodly  houses,  and  dwelt  therein ;  and  when  thy 
herds  and  thy  flocks  multiply,  and  thy  silver  and 
thy  gold  is  multiplied,  and  all  that  thou  hast  is 
multiplied ;  then  thy  heart  be  lifted  up,  and  thou 
forget  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  forth 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of 
bondage;  who  led  thee  through  the  great  and 
terrible  wilderness  wherein  were  fiery  serpents 
and  scorpions,  and  thirsty  ground  where  was  not 
water;  who  brought  thee  forth  water  out  of  the 
rock  of  flint ;  who  fed  thee  in  the  wilderness  with 
manna  which  thy  father  knew  not;  that  he 
might  humble  thee,  and  that  he  might  prove  thee, 
to  do  thee  good  at  thy  latter  end:    And  lest  thou 

100 


MONEY  AND  THE  KINGDOM 

say  in  thy  heart,  My  power  and  the  might  of 
my  hand  hath  gotten  me  this  wealth.  But  thou 
shalt  remember  Jehovah  thy  God,  for  it  is  He 
that  giveth  thee  power  to  get  wealth;  that  He 
may  establish  His  covenant  which  He  sware  unto 
thy  fathers,  as  at  this  day."      Deut.  8:11-]  8. 

Christ  called  emphatic  attention  to  the  same 
danger.  In  the  parable  of  the  sovv^er  occurs  this 
deeply  suggestive  statement :  '*He  that  was  sown 
among  the  thorns,  this  is  he  that  heareth  the 
word;  and  the  care  of  the  world  and  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  riches  choke  the  word,  and  he  be- 
cometh  unfruitful."  Mat.  13:22.  In  another 
place  He  spoke  even  more  strongly:  ''How  hardly 
shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God!"    Mark  10:23. 

In  view  of  these  plain  and  powerful  warnings 
how  timely  and  appropriate  is  the  command 
which  Christ  gave:  ''Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  the  earth,  where  moth  and  rust 
consume,  and  where  thieves  break  through  and 
steal:  But  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in 
heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  con- 
sume, and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through 
nor  steal:  For  where  thy  treasure  is  there  will 
thy  heart  be  also."  Mat.  6:19-21.  It  is  of  great 
importance  that  this  reason  assigned  to  this 
command  be  clearly  observed:  "For  where  thy 
treasure  is  there  will  thy  heart  be  also."  Christ 
wants  our  hearts  set  on  spiritual  and  eternal 
things.      To  this  end  He  asks  that  we  do  not 

101 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

make  the  earth  the  storehouse  of  our  treasure. 

I  know  a  business  man  who  is  very  successful, 
with  an  income  of  over  $100,000  a  year,  who 
takes  this  command  to  lay  up  treasure  in  heaven 
just  as  it  stands  and  follows  it.  He  refuses  to 
invest  in  stocks  or  bonds  or  real  estate  or  gold 
mines  or  anything  else  apart  from  his  one  bus- 
iness. As  rapidly  as  God  gives  him  money  he 
uses  it  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom.  He 
has  a  large  family  of  children,  and  he  says  that 
for  their  sake,  he  does  not  want  to  take  the  risk 
of  accumulating  wealth,  though  if  he  wished,  he 
could  accumulate  a  million  dollars  within  ten 
years.  Has  he  not  discovered  the  real  spirit  of 
Christ's  teaching? 

There  is  another  very  successful  business 
man  who,  in  the  prime  of  life,  has  decided  to  give 
practically  all  of  his  time  and  strength  to  King- 
dom-building instead  of  to  fortune-building.  He 
has  written  a  most  suggestive  booklet  on  *'Why 
Fm  Glad  I  Stopped  Getting  Rich."  The  Lord 
has  used  him  in  a  very  wonderful  way  since  he 
took  this  stand.  Is  God  not  calling  on  hundreds 
of  successful  business  men  to  do  something  like 
what  these  men  are  doing?  One  is  remaining 
active  in  business  and  using  his  income  for  King- 
dom purposes;  the  other  has  turned  over  his 
business  almost  wholly  to  the  management  of 
others,  that  he  may  put  his  own  time  and  con- 
structive leadership  into  spiritual  affairs. 

One  of  the  best  modern  definitions  of  money 

102 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

is  given  by  Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler  in  these  words: 
"Money  is  myself.  I  am  a  laboring  man,  we  will 
say,  and  can  handle  a  pickaxe,  and  I  hire  myself 
out  for  a  week  at  $2.00  a  day.  At  the  close  of 
the  week  I  get  $12.00  and  put  it  in  my  pocket. 
What  is  that  $12.00?  It  is  a  week's  worth  of  my 
muscle  put  into  greenbacks  and  pocketed;  that 
is,  I  have  got  a  week's  worth  of  myself  in  my 
pocket.  Or,  I  am  a  clerk  and  I  hire  myself  out 
at  $20.00  a  week.  Saturday  comes  and  I  get  my 
pay,  and  when  I  put  that  in  my  pocket,  I  pocket 
a  week's  worth  of  myself  as  a  clerk.  Or,  I  am 
a  merchant,  and  I  have  larger  affairs.  At  the 
end  of  the  week  I  strike  my  balance-sheet  and 
find  that  I  am  to  the  good  $1,000.  That  is  a 
week's  worth  of  the  merchant.  The  muscle  man, 
the  mind  man,  the  genius,  when  he  gets  his 
money,  is  really  getting  the  result  of  his  own 
labor  in  the  shape  of  cash. 

Money  in  your  pocket  is  not  merely  silver  and 
gold,  but  it  is  something  human,  something  that 
is  instinct  with  power,  because  it  represents 
power  expended. 

Now,  money  is  like  electricity;  it  is  stored 
power,  and  it  is  only  a  question  as  to  where  that 
power  shall  be  loosed.  It  can  do  nothing  simply 
as  stored  power;  it  is  stored  that  it  may  be 
loosed.  How  shall  it  be  loosed?  That  is  the 
only  question.  It  is  a  very  serious  question 
indeed,  because  with  the  Divine  blessing,  there 
may  come  such  results  as  shall  cause  us  to  marvel 

103 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

here  and  to  praise  God  throughout  all  eternity." 
Jesus  said :  "No  man  can  serve  two  masters," 
but  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  is  impossible  not  to 
serve  one.  As  an  indication  of  the  two  masters 
that  are  likeliest  to  be  set  over  against  each  other 
in  bidding  for  first  place  in  our  lives,  Jesus  went 
on  to  say,  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon." 
It  might  well  be  rendered  "Ye  cannot  serve  God 
and  gold."  The  argument  which  Jesus  bases  on 
this  fundamental  principle  is  of  the  greatest 
practical  value.  The  statement  that  immediately 
follows  is:  "Therefore  be  not  anxious  for  your 
life,  *  *  but  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God."  Mat. 
6:25-33.  Since  you  cannot  serve  both  yourself 
and  God,  serve  God,  and  He  will  see  that  you 
have  what  you  need  for  your  physical  needs.  It  is 
impossible  to  get  the  full  force  of  this  command 
of  Jesus  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God,  with- 
out going  back  to  the  basis  of  the  whole  argu- 
ment at  the  beginning  of  the  paragraph,  viz., 
"No  man  can  serve  two  masters."  It  is  a 
terrible  tragedy  for  a  man  made  in  the  image  of 
God  and  destined  to  live  forever,  and  intended  to 
be  an  important  constructive  factor  in  building 
the  eternal  Kingdom  of  God,  to  be  possessed  with 
a  passion  for  earthly  possessions.  This  must 
inevitably  mean  that  he  cannot  possibly  "seek 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God."  The  folly  and  danger 
of  seeking  first  for  earthly  gain  is  impressively 
stated  in  Paul's  counsel  to  Timothy:  "But  god- 
liness with  contentment  is  great  gain:     For  we 

104 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

brought  nothing  into  the  world,  for  neither  can 
we  carry  anything  out;  But  having  food  and 
covering  we  shall  be  therewith  content.  But 
they  that  are  minded  to  be  rich  fall  into  a 
temptation  and  a  snare  and  many  foolish  and 
hurtful  lusts,  such  as  drown  men  in  destruction 
and  perdition.  For  the  love  of  money  is  a  root 
of  all  kinds  of  evil:  which  some  reaching  after 
have  been  led  astray  from  the  faith,  and  have 
pierced  themselves  through  with  many  sorrows." 

**But  thou,  0  man  of  God,  flee  these  things; 
and  follow  after  righteousness,  godliness,  faith, 
love,  patience,  meekness.  Fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith,  lay  hold  on  the  life  eternal, 
whereunto  thou  wast  called,  and  didst  confess 
the  good  confession  in  the  sight  of  many  wit- 
nesses." ''Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this 
present  world,  that  they  be  not  high-minded,  nor 
have  their  hope  set  on  the  uncertainty  of  riches, 
but  on  God,  who  giveth  us  richly  all  things  to 
enjoy;  that  they  do  good,  that  they  be  rich  in 
good  works,  that  they  be  ready  to  distribute, 
willing  to  communicate;  laying  up  in  store  for 
themselves  a  good  foundation  against  the  time 
to  come,  that  they  may  lay  hold  on  the  life  which 
is  life  indeed."    1  Tim.  8:12,  17-19. 

Covetousness  is  one  of  the  most  deadening 
and  damning  sins  described  in  the  Bible.  Yet  it 
is  about  the  most  respectable  sin  among  modern 
Christians.  One  of  the  ten  commandments  of 
the    decalogue    deals    exclusively    with    this    sin, 

105 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

which  marks  it  at  once  as  one  of  the  fiercest  foes 
of  a  worthy  life.  Paul  puts  covetousness  in  a 
very  black  list  when  he  says:  "Put  to  death 
therefore  your  members  which  are  upon  the 
earth:  fornication,  uncleanness,  passion,  evil  de- 
sire, and  covetousness,  which  is  idolatry;  for 
which  things'  sake  cometh  the  wrath  of  God 
upon  the  sons  of  disobedience."  Col.  3:5-6.  One 
of  the  few  men  that  God  is  described  as  calling  a 
fool  is  the  covetous  man.  Jesus  said:  "Take 
heed  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetousness: 
for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance 
of  the  things  which  he  possesseth.  And  he  spake 
a  parable  unto  them,  saying,  the  ground  of  a 
certain  rich  man  brought  forth  plentifully  and 
he  reasoned  within  himself,  saying,  what  shall  I 
do  because  I  have  not  where  to  bestow  my  fruits? 
And  he  said.  This  will  I  do:  I  will  pull  down  my 
barns  and  build  greater;  and  there  will  I  bestow 
all  my  grain  and  my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to 
my  soul.  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for 
many  years;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  be 
merry.  But  God  said  unto  him.  Thou  foolish 
one,  this  night  is  thy  soul  required  of  thee;  and 
the  things  which  thou  hast  prepared,  whose  shall 
they  be?  So  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure  for 
himself,  and  is  not  rich  toward  God."  Luke  12 : 
15-21. 

"Be  not  deceived:  neither  fornicators,  nor 
idolators,  nor  adulterers,  nor  effeminate,  nor 
abusers  of  themselves  with  men,  nor  thieves,  nor 

106 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

covetous,  nor  drunkards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extor- 
tioners, shall  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God." 
1  Cor.  6:9-10. 

It  is  necessary  that  Christians  see  clearly  the 
perils  of  wealth  and  the  corroding  and  crushing 
sin  of  covetousness,  in  order  properly  to  value 
the  means  of  overcoming  these  temptations  in 
themselves  and  among  their  fellow-disciples. 
For  God  never  asks  of  us  anything  that  is  not 
for  our  own  good.  When  He  makes  His  King- 
dom dependent  on  our  gifts,  we  may  be  sure  that 
His  plan  contains  blessing  for  us  in  connection 
with  our  giving.  No  character  can  be  complete 
in  which  this  grace  of  giving  is  not  largely  de- 
veloped. '*As  ye  abound  in  everything,  in  faith 
and  utterance,  and  knowledge,  and  in  all  earnest- 
ness, and  in  your  love  to  us,  see  that  ye  abound  in 
this  grace  (of  giving)  also."  2  Cor.  8:7.  If 
the  grace  of  giving  can  thus  be  classified  with 
faith  and  utterance  and  knowledge  and  earnest- 
ness and  love,  it  becomes  apparent  at  once  that 
this  grace  needs  cultivation  in  the  life  of  every 
disciple.  Dr.  Alexander  MacLaren  says:  "Giving 
is  essential  to  the  completeness  of  Christian  char- 
acter. It  is  the  crowning  grace,  because  it  is  the 
practical  manifestation  of  the  highest  excellences. 
It  is  the  result  of  sympathy,  unselfishness,  of  con- 
tact with  Christ,  of  drinking  in  of  his  spirit." 
It  is  from  this  angle  that  it  is  seen  to 
be  of  surpassing  importance  that  all  children  as 
well  as  older  people  be  taught  proper  habits  and 

107 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

standards  of  giving.  Our  financial  plans  for  the 
Church  must  be  based  on  the  purpose  of  helping 
to  save  our  whole  Church  membership  from  the 
blight  and  curse  of  covetousness. 

Childhood  and  youth  are  the  natural  period 
of  habit-forming.  Habits  neglected  until  mature 
life  is  reached,  are  formed  with  far  greater  dif- 
ficulty. Where  children  have  not  been  taught 
to  give  until  after  they  are  grown  to  maturity,  it 
is  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  they  ever 
learn  proper  habits  of  giving.  Parents  are  as 
responsible  for  teaching  their  children  to  give  as 
for  teaching  them  to  pray.  It  is  a  serious  ques- 
tion whether  the  failure  to  give  is  not  as  damag- 
ing to  character  as  the  failure  to  pray.  Pastors, 
Sabbath  School  teachers,  editors,  and  all  other 
Christian  leaders,  should  make  this  danger  so 
clear  and  emphatic  that  no  one  in  connection 
with  the  Church  in  any  of  its  departments  would 
be  left  without  patient  and  thorough  instruction. 
Parents  can  no  more  do  the  giving  for  their  chil- 
dren than  they  can  do  their  eating  for  them. 
It  would  be  well  if  all  of  our  children  could  be  as 
well  trained  in  the  habit  of  regular  systematic 
giving  as  the  one  of  whom  the  following  incident 
is  told.  He  was  in  his  seat  in  church  one  day 
when  a  fashionably  dressed  strange  lady  was 
shown  into  the  pew  beside  him.  When  the  ushers 
began  to  take  up  the  collection,  the  boy  noticed 
that  the  lady  had  no  offering  to  put  on  the  plate. 
He  felt  keenly  the  humiliation  of  such  a  situa- 

108 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

tion.  As  the  ushers  drew  nearer,  a  happy  thought 
struck  him,  and  leaning  over  close  to  the  stranger, 
he  handed  her  his  offering  as  he  said  in  a  stage 
whisper :  "Here,  you  put  this  in ;  I  can  get  under 
the  seat." 

It  would  take  rather  radical  changes  in  the 
architecture  of  our  churches  to  provide  accommo- 
dations for  all  the  people  who  by  these  stand- 
ards would  have  to  get  under  the  seats. 
Every  person  needs  the  personal  spiritual  de- 
velopment that  comes  from  proper  habits  of 
giving,  just  as  certainly  as  every  individual  re- 
quires food  and  exercise  for  the  normal  develop- 
ment of  his  physical  powers.  Moreover,  children 
as  well  as  older  disciples  are  to  take  their  part  as 
active  workers  and  witnesses  in  extending  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ  throughout  the  world.  Those 
who  are  called  to  tend  the  sheep  and  feed  the 
lambs,  should  see  to  it  that  the  Church  uses 
methods  that  will  secure  the  development  of  this 
grace  of  giving  in  younger  and  older  alike. 

Too  often  the  question  of  finance  has  been 
one  of  getting  funds  enough  to  keep  the 
Church  machinery  running.  God's  main  idea  of 
it  is  that  through  giving,  character  is  being  de- 
veloped that  could  not  be  produced  in  any  other 
way.  Unless  all  financial  work  in  the  Church  is 
approached  from  this  angle,  there  is  danger  of 
its  being  regarded  as  a  burden  instead  of  a  spir- 
itual opportunity,  and  there  is  danger  that  the 
very  thing  that  God  intended  to  be  a  means  of 

109 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

blessing  and  enrichment  shall  be  turned  into  a 
reproach  to  the  Church.  Because  of  the  unspir- 
itual  and  wrong  financial  methods  often  used, 
many  people  outside  the  Church  have  received 
the  impression  that  one  of  the  chief  things  which 
the  Church  wants  of  them  is  their  money.  No 
money  ought  ever  to  be  asked  for  by  the  Church 
that  is  not  to  be  given  to  God  as  an  act  of  love 
and  obedience  and  worship  to  Him.  Christ 
would  still  drive  from  His  temple  many  of  the 
methods  that  have  been  used  in  Church  finance 
with  the  solemn  warning:  "Take  these  things 
hence.  Make  not  my  Father's  house  a  place  of 
merchandise."       John  2:16. 

It  is  not  because  God  is  either  a  pauper  or  a 
beggar  that  He  asks  us  for  money  for  His  King- 
dom. He  is  already  the  owner  of  the  wealth  of 
the  universe.  "The  silver  and  the  gold  are  mine, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand 
hills.  If  I  were  hungry,  I  would  not  ask  thee, 
for  the  world  is  mine  and  the  fulness  thereof." 
"It  is  not  a  question  of  how  much  of  my  money  I 
will  give  to  God,  but  how  much  of  God's  money 
I  will  keep  and  use  for  myself." 

If  God  is  so  rich,  why  then  does  He  ask  us  for 
money?  There  is  only  one  possible  answer.  It 
is  that  we  may  become  more  like  Himself  in  char- 
acter. If  we  are  going  to  become  like  God, 
we  have  got  to  give  as  God  does.  And  the  more 
we  share  His  likeness,  the  more  absolutely  cer- 
tain is  it  that  we  shall  give  as  He  does. 

110 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

"God  SO  loved  the  world  that  He  gave."  And 
in  giving,  He  gave  His  best.  This  passage  is 
wonderfully  illuminated  and  applied  in  1  John  3 : 
16-17.  "Hereby  know  we  love  because  he  laid 
down  his  life  for  us;  and  we  ought  to  lay  down 
our  lives  for  the  brethren.  But  whoso  hath  the 
world's  goods,  and  beholdeth  his  brother  in  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  compassion  from  him,  how 
doth  the  love  of  God  abide  in  him?"  This  is 
God's  challenging  way  of  saying  that  it  does  not. 
God's  love  cannot  abide  in  the  heart  of  a  person 
who  does  not  give.  "A  man  may  give  without 
loving,  but  he  cannot  love  without  giving."  His 
giving  is  the  manifestation  and  the  measure  of 
his  love.  All  graces  grow  by  exercise,  just  as 
muscles  become  strong  through  use.  The  grace 
of  giving  needs  a  great  deal  of  hard  exercise  to 
keep  it  healthy. 

The  churches  of  North  America  are  not  now 
giving  half  enough  to  keep  themselves  healthy, 
even  if  there  were  no  world  to  evangelize.  The 
average  contribution  of  American  church  mem- 
bers, for  all  church  and  missionary  purposes,  is 
only  about  thirty  cents  per  week.  Thirty  cents 
is  one-tenth  of  $3.00,  and  $3.00  is  earned  by  the 
most  unskilled  laborer  in  America  in  a  day  and  a 
half  to  two  days.  Even  if  the  church  members 
of  America  were  not  earning  on  the  average  more 
than  the  most  unskilled  laborers  in  the  land,  they 
are  giving  only  about  one-fourth  of  one-tenth  of 
their      income      to      the      Church      in     all     its 

111 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

manifold  operations  and  work.  Giving  even 
one-tenth  of  the  income  to  God  would 
probably  multiply  the  contributions  of  most 
churches  at  least  four-fold.  But  one-tenth 
is  not  the  full  measure  of  Christian  obliga- 
tion. It  is  only  a  good  starting-point  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Godlike  giving.  The  New  Testa- 
ment rule  is,  "Freely  ye  have  received:  freely 
give.''  In  other  words,  give  in  the  same  way 
that  God  has  given  to  you.  In  another  striking 
passage  Jesus  says:  "Whosoever  he  be  of  you 
that  renounceth  not  all  that  he  hath  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple."  Luke  14:33.  That  is  to  say  that 
all  possessions  must  be  held  absolutely  at  Christ's 
disposal.  It  will  require  a  good  deal  more  than 
giving  one-tenth  to  keep  multitudes  of  people 
from  covetousness  in  these  days.  Yet  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  tenth  as  the  starting-point  is  not  to 
be  set  aside  as  of  no  value.  It  has  enormous 
spiritual  value.  Many  have  thrust  it  aside  as  a 
part  of  a  worn-out  legal  system.  But  this  is  a 
very  superficial  course  to  pursue.  God  never  put 
such  tremendous  emphasis  upon  giving  the  tithe 
in  any  dispensation  unless  there  was  something 
inherently  and  eternally  right  and  reasonable 
about  it  in  all  dispensations.  Two  of  the  severest 
tests  of  loyalty  to  God  in  Old  Testament  times 
were  keeping  the  Sabbath  and  paying  the  tithe. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  there  are  any  more  im- 
portant practical  tests  of  love  and  loyalty  in  the 
New  Testament  dispensation. 

112 


MONEY  AND  THE   KINGDOM 

''System,  not  spasm,  is  God's  method."  No 
man  can  do  his  best  in  any  direction  unless  he 
uses  system.  In  the  matter  of  giving  system  is 
peculiarly  important,  if  one  is  to  put  the  king- 
dom of  God  first.  If  the  matter  is  left  to  im- 
pulse the  danger  is  that  multiplied  calls  of  a 
personal  nature  will  consume  one's  resources, 
and  only  the  leavings  will  be  available  for  God 
and  His  work. 

I  was  once  asked  by  a  church  officer  how  one 
could  give  to  the  church  when  he  needed  all  of  his 
money  for  other  things.  He  said,  *'How  can  you 
get  any  juice  out  of  an  orange  that  is  already 
squeezed  dry?"  My  answer  was,  "My  dear  man, 
the  time  to  squeeze  for  God  is  when  the  orange  is 
full.  It  is  not  the  dregs  He  asks,  but  the  first- 
fruits." 

It  was  doubtless  partly  the  human  necessity 
for  system  that  led  to  the  divine  call  for  at  least 
one-tenth  of  the  income  to  be  brought  in  regu- 
larly to  the  appointed  place  of  worship.  No 
elaborate  massing  of  scripture  is  necessary  to  in- 
dicate this  proportion  as  the  very  least  that  any 
Christian  should  give. 

"The  tenth  is  the  Lord's."     Lev.  27:30. 

"Will  a  man  rob  God?  Yet  ye  rob  me.  But 
ye  say.  Wherein  have  we  robbed  thee?  In  tithes 
and  offerings.  Ye  are  cursed  with  the  curse; 
for  ye  rob  me,  even  this  whole  nation.  Bring  ye 
the  whole  tithe  into  the  storehouse,  that  there 
may  be  food  in  my  house,  and  prove  me  now 

113 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

herewith,  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not 
open  you  the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you 
out  a  blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it."      Mai.  3:8-10. 

''Ye  tithe ;  this  ought  ye  to  have  done."  Mat. 
23:23. 

''Here  men  that  die  receive  tithes;  but  there 
one  of  whom  it  is  witnessed  that  He  liveth." 
Heb.  7:8. 

What  the  law  of  God  commands,  what  the 
Son  of  God  in  specific  terms  approves  and  com- 
mends, and  what  forty  centuries  of  experience 
endorses  as  of  deep  spiritual  significance  and 
value,  is  not  to  be  set  aside  by  any  careless  in- 
terpretation of  the  transient  value  of  parts  of 
scripture.  "Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is 
also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  cor- 
rection, for  instruction  which  is  in  righteous- 
ness :  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  complete,  fur- 
nished completely  unto  every  good  work."  2 
Tim.  3:16,17.  It  is  not  only  New  Testament 
scripture  that  is  thus  profitable.  The  Apostle 
Peter  voices  the  call  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the 
obedience  of  all  Scripture  in  his  emphatic  decla- 
ration: "No  prophecy  (or  teaching)  of  Scripture 
is  of  private  interpretation.  For  no  prophecy 
ever  came  by  the  will  of  man:  but  men  spake 
from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  2 
Peter  1:20-21. 

There  is  another  powerful  line  of  argument 
that  is  not  only  confirmatory  but  absolutely  con- 

114 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

elusive.  In  discussing  the  relation  of  the  law 
and  the  gospel  Paul  makes  this  great  generaliza- 
tion: ''For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it 
was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending  his  own 
Son,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin, 
condemned  sin  in  the  flesh :  that  the  requirement 
of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not 
after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit."    Rom.  8:3-4. 

In  other  words,  the  very  purpose  of  the  gos- 
pel is  to  enable  men  to  fulfill  the  requirement  of 
the  law,  not  to  dodge  it.  People  who  are  willing 
to  fall  below  the  standards  of  the  law  are  thereby 
dishonoring  the  gospel.  Christ  read  fuller  mean- 
ing into  every  law  of  the  Old  Testament.  And 
He  certainly  means  His  disciples  to  go  far  be- 
yond the  tithe  in  their  loving  obedience  to  the 
outworking  of  His  life  through  them.  The  tenth 
is  the  starting-point  and  the  minimum  propor- 
tion for  all  Christians  to  give  systematically  to 
God.  Those  who  can  afford  to  do  so  will  give 
a  far  larger  proportion  if  the  love  of  God  is  al- 
lowed to  possess  them. 

The  only  people  competent  to  give  testimony 
to  the  spiritual  value  of  obedience  to  this  law  of 
the  tithe  are  the  people  who  have  obeyed  it.  It 
is  deeply  significant  that  with  one  voice,  those 
who  have  given  to  God  habitually  at  least  one- 
tenth  of  their  income,  heartily  testify  to  its  great 
spiritual  value.  The  ancient  challenge  of  God 
to  His  people  has  not  been  withdrawn,  and  many 
are  still  accepting  it  and  finding  it  true:    "Bring 

115 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

ye  the  whole  tithe  into  the  storehouse,  that  there 
may  be  food  in  my  house,  and  prove  me  now 
herewith,  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open 
you  the  windows  of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  a 
blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to 
receive  it."  Mai.  3:10.  There  can  be  no  great 
general  spiritual  awakening  throughout  the 
Church  until  there  is  fuller  obedience  to  God's 
will  in  this  matter  of  giving. 

One  of  the  most  blessed  things  about  the 
habit  of  proportionate  giving  is  that  in  so  many 
cases  it  is  the  first  step  toward  giving  God  two- 
tenths  or  five-tenths  or  nine-tenths  of  the  income, 
instead  of  one.  The  instances  where  this  has 
been  done  are  legion.  But  there  are  very  few 
cases  of  persons  reaching  high  altitudes  of  Chris- 
tian stewardship  without  beginning  to  climb  up 
to  them  on  the  ladder  of  the  tithe.  In  this  case, 
again,  "The  law  is  our  school-master  to  bring  us 
to  Christ."  And  having  come  to  accept  Christ's 
standards,  men  go  on  beyond  the  requirements  of 
the  law  from  the  new  principle  of  divine  love 
that  He  has  imparted  to  them. 

I  do  not  want  to  be  quoted  as  saying  that  a 
man  is  doing  his  financial  duty  if  he  is  giving 
one-tenth  of  his  income  to  God.  It  is  possible  to 
give  this,  and  still  be  a  Pharisee  and  a  hypocrite. 
All  prosperous  Christians  ought  undoubtedly  to 
be  giving  a  far  larger  proportion  than  this.  But 
even  the  poorest  disciple  cannot  afford  to  give 
less  than  one-tenth.      Nine-tenths  of  even  a  very 

116 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

small  income  will  go  further  after  one-tenth  of  it 
has  been  given  to  God,  than  the  whole  amount 
will  go  if  it  is  all  kept. 

Mr.  H.  Z.  Duke  of  Dallas,  Texas,  gives  very 
remarkable  testimony  to  the  blessings  of  God  that 
have  come  from  simple  obedience  to  God's  law  in 
the  matter  of  proportionate  giving.  He  has  been 
so  prospered  in  business  as  well  as  in  spiritual 
matters  that  he  is  now  at  the  head  of  a  large 
string  of  stores  in  Texas  and  the  Southwest,  and 
rejoices  at  being  able  to  give  not  only  one-tenth, 
but  practically  all  of  his  income  to  the  work  of 
the  Lord. 

I  met  a  man  in  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  who  told 
me  that  he  had  not  been  converted  until  middle 
life,  and  had  then  joined  a  Methodist  church. 
The  stewards  of  the  church  called  on  him  and 
told  him  that  they  had  assessed  him  $12.50  to- 
ward the  church  expenses.  He  asked  them  how 
long  this  $12.50  was  supposed  to  be  good  for. 
They  told  him  that  it  would  do  for  a  year.  In 
utter  amazement  at  so  small  an  amount  being 
stipulated,  he  exclaimed:  *'Why,  when  I  was 
serving  the  devil,  I  often  spent  that  much  on  him 
in  one  evening!"  When  he  got  home,  he  dis- 
cussed the  matter  with  his  wife.  She  suggested 
that  probably  there  might  be  something  in  the 
Bible  to  help  them  determine  how  much  they 
should  give.  So  they  decided  to  read  the  Bible 
through  to  find  out.  My  friend  showed  me  the 
passages  from  the  Bible  that  he  had  copied  into 

117 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

his  note-book,  that  threw  light  for  him  on  his 
duty.  As  he  turned  the  leaves,  he  put  his  index 
finger  on  a  verse  he  had  written,  and  said  to 
me,  "This  verse  fixed  me."  I  was,  of  course, 
deeply  interested  to  see  the  verse  that  had  ''fixed" 
him,  as  he  described  it.  I  found  it  to  be  the  fa- 
miliar passage  in  Mai.  3:8-10,  ''Will  a  man  rob 
God?"  He  went  on  to  say  that  he  and  his  wife 
then  decided  that  they  would  certainly  give  to 
God  at  least  one-tenth  of  their  income.  As  they 
read  on  through  the  New  Testament,  they  discov- 
ered higher  standards  still  and  had  accepted 
those  also. 

"And  now,"  he  continued,  "perhaps  you 
would  like  to  see  what  we  have  given  to  God  in 
the  last  six  months.  I  have  the  account  right 
here  in  this  same  book."  He  referred  to  the 
book  in  which  he  had  written  down  all  the  chief 
passages  on  giving.  And  what  do  you  suppose 
this  man  had  given,  of  whom  the  church  stew- 
ards had  asked  $12.50?  He  showed  me  the  fig- 
ures. He  had  given  $327  during  the  past  six 
months.  Would  that  every  new  convert  would 
go  to  the  Word  of  God  for  his  standards  of  giv- 
ing, rather  than  accept  any  inadequate  basis  sug- 
gested by  any  church  officers  whatsoever. 

If  this  problem  of  leading  people  to  give  as 
God  gives  is  ever  to  be  settled,  I  know  of  noth- 
ing that  can  help  so  much  toward  it  as  the  ade- 
quate presentation  of  the  whole  world's  need. 
The  world  is  the  only  thing  big  enough  to  pro- 

118 


MONEY  AND  THE   KINGDOM 

vide  outlet  and  motive  for  giving  on  a  scale  com- 
mensurate with  the  capacity  of  the  Christians  of 
our  day. 

The  money  that  belongs  by  every  right  to 
God,  but  that  is  kept  back  from  Him  by  His  peo- 
ple, is  probably  the  greatest  hindrance  to  vital 
spirituality  that  there  is  in  the  world  today.  No 
person  can  become  Christlike  without  accepting 
Christ's  standards  of  action.  If  Christ  were  on 
earth  in  the  flesh,  and  had  the  money  now  in  the 
possession  of  Christians,  how  long  would  it  take 
to  get  all  the  money  needed  to  support  mission- 
aries enough  to  evangelize  the  world?  If  Christ 
had  your  bank  account,  what  would  He  do  with 
it?  Does  He  have  it?  Shall  He  have  it?  Shall 
He  have  it  from  now  on  ?  ''Ye  are  not  your  own : 
ye  are  bought  with  a  price:  Therefore,  glorify 
God  in  your  body,  and  in  your  spirit,  which  are 
God's."     I.  Cor.  6:19-20. 

How  much  money  is  needed  for  the  evangeli- 
zation of  the  world  and  what  are  the  best 
methods  of  securing  it? 

The  whole  of  Protestant  Christendom  is  now 
spending  about  $33,000,000  annually  to  evangel- 
ize the  non-Christian  world,  of  which  amount 
about  one-half  is  contributed  by  the  churches  of 
the  United  States.  The  total  present  missionary 
force  should  be  at  least  doubled  in  order  to  reach 
the  whole  world  with  the  gospel  in  this  generation. 
The  present  material  equipment  is  also  very  in- 
adequate,   and    the    cost  of  living  is  increasing 

119 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

abroad  as  well  as  at  home.  Eighty  million  dol- 
lars a  year  would,  therefore,  be  a  very  moderate 
estimate  of  the  total  financial  need.  More 
than  three  and  a  half  times  this  amount  is  being 
contributed  annually  for  religious  purposes  with- 
in the  United  States  by  the  Protestant  Churches, 
and  the  population  of  the  United  States  is  less 
than  one-tenth  the  population  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian world.  So  from  some  angles,  an  estimate 
of  $80,000,000  a  year  for  the  whole  non-Chris- 
tian world  is  absurdly  small. 

In  order  to  double  the  total  number  of  mis- 
sionaries abroad,  it  will  probably  be  necessary 
for  the  churches  in  the  United  States  to  treble 
the  force  in  the  territory  they  occupy.  This 
would  mean  in  round  numbers  a  total  of  25,000 
missionaries  from  the  United  States,  together 
with  an  annual  contribution  of  $50,000,000  by  the 
24,000,000  Protestant  church  members  in  Amer- 
ica. It  ought  to  be  possible  to  enlist  the  active 
co-operation  of  at  least  16,000,000  of  these,  or 
two-thirds  of  the  total  number  of  Protes- 
tant Christians.  Twenty-five  thousand  mis- 
sionaries would  only  require  one  out  of  every 
640  of  these  16,000,000.  To  support  these  25,000 
missionaries  and  their  work,  together  with  an 
army  of  native  Christian  workers,  would  cost 
about  $2000  a  year  per  missionary,  or 
$3.12  per  member  annually  for  the  16,000,000 
Christians  that  we  are  supposing  could  be 
reached.    $3.12  a  year  is  only  six  cents  a  week,  or 

120 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

a  penny  a  day  for  the  working  days  of  the  year. 
If  only  one-half  as  many  people  can  be  enlisted  as 
we  have  supposed,  it  could  still  be  done  for  an 
average  of  a  postage  stamp  a  day  for  the  work- 
ing days  of  the  year.  Or  two  million  people  each 
giving  50  cents  per  week  would  provide  the  total 
$50,000,000  a  year  needed,  or  one  million  people 
averaging  each  one  dollar  per  week  could  do  the 
same  thing. 

These  calculations  are  only  to  indicate  how 
perfectly  simple  and  feasible  it  is  to  provide  the 
money  needed  if  the  Church  really  cares.  If  the 
Church  does  not  care  and  cannot  be  led  to  care, 
then  Christ  will  have  to  wait  until  He  finally  gets 
a  Church  that  shares  His  own  compassion.  It  is 
not  intended  to  suggest  that  the  actual  giving 
will  be  done  according  to  any  such  mathematical 
calculation  as  the  above.  Already  there  are  in- 
dividuals pouring  money  into  the  missionary 
treasury  by  the  $10,000  or  more  every  year. 
And  their  number  should  be  greatly  increased. 
The  law  of  ''averages"  is  a  dangerous  thing  in 
religion.  God  is  not  looking  or  asking  for  ''aver- 
age" Christians.  There  are  entirely  too  many  of 
them  now.  What  is  needed  is  a  school  of  Chris- 
tians who  will  undertake  to  do  all  they  can,  re- 
gardless of  the  disobedience  of  others. 

One  man  has  undertaken  to  provide  all  the 
workers  and  equipment  needed  in  a  field  of 
250,000  people  in  Korea.  He  is  supporting  thir- 
teen American  missionaries  in  that  district.      In- 

121 


MISSIONS  AND   LEADERSHIP 

side  of  ten  or  fifteen  years  the  probabilities  are 
that  he  will  have  carried  the  gospel  to  that  whole 
quarter  of  a  million  people,  and  will  not  have  ex- 
pended upon  it  as  much  as  many  Christian  people 
spend  on  the  house  they  live  in  or  on  a  yacht,  or 
some  other  extravagant  plaything  that  they  do 
not  need.  Increasingly  individuals,  families  and 
churches  should  relate  themselves  in  this  definite 
fashion  to  some  part  of  the  world  and  evangelize 
it.  This  should  in  the  nature  of  the  case  be  done 
in  connection  with  the  organized  missionary 
agencies  of  the  Church.  They  are  the  most  ex- 
perienced, the  most  reliable,  the  most  economical, 
the  most  efficient,  and  the  most  permanent. 

Only  by  challenging  many  of  the  wealthier 
men  and  women  of  the  Church  to  some  such  pro- 
gram as  this  is  it  likely  that  they  will  ever  give 
what  they  ought  to  this  cause.  There  are  persons 
in  almost  every  town  who  might  be  led  to  do  this 
if  brought  face  to  face  with  the  definite  opportu- 
nity and  suggestion.  There  is  no  probability  that 
these  large  gifts  will  ever  be  secured  by  the  ordi- 
nary appeal,  or  by  the  annual  organized  personal 
canvass.  This  must  be  done  by  special  personal 
effort,  but  it  is  open  to  anyone  to  engage  in  it,  not 
only  among  members  of  his  own  communion,  but 
among  suitable  persons  of  all  communions.  In 
every  case,  people  who  become  interested  should 
be  put  into  communication  with  their  own  mis- 
sionary leaders. 

Another  method  of  securing  the  larger  gifts 

122 


MONEY  AND  THE  KINGDOM 

for  missions  is  to  present  definite  needs  for  en- 
larged equipment,  such  as  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
schools,  and  other  large  items  of  the  missionary 
budget  to  individuals  capable  of  supplying  these 
needs.  Every  denomination  owes  it  to  its  con- 
stituency, as  well  as  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  to 
adopt  plans  for  cultivating  and  reaching  its 
potential  larger  givers.  People  of  small  incomes 
may  be  reached  by  the  ordinary  methods  now 
being  used  in  the  most  progressive  churches. 
But  as  yet  no  adequate  plan  has  been  developed 
for  securing  large  contributions  regularly  from 
all  who  can  afford  to  make  them. 

The  first  step  in  systematic  cultivation  of  this 
constituency  is  to  have  a  card  catalogue  pre- 
pared at  the  central  denominational  headquar- 
ters, containing  the  name  and  address  of  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  denomination  with 
property  worth  say  $10,000  or  more.  It  would 
be  abundantly  worth  while  to  send  to  each  of 
these  persons,  about  once  each  quarter,  some 
strong  timely  message,  either  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  or  an  attractively  printed  pamphlet. 

The  larger  missionary  needs  of  the  denom- 
ination should  be  carefully  tabulated,  and  be 
brought  strongly  before  this  constituency  by  per- 
sons specially  selected  to  do  this  work.  All  those 
who  are  led  to  make  a  first  substantial  contribu- 
tion should  be  kept  on  a  separate  list  and  should 
have  additional  special  cultivation,  particularly 
by  way  of  report  of  what  is  being  accomplished. 

123 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

By  a  process  including  these  features,  the  Dis- 
ciples of  Christ  have  recently  raised  a  million 
dollars  for  the  equipment  of  their  foreign  mis- 
sionary work,  though  this  is  about  three  times 
their  annual  regular  contributions  to  foreign 
missions.  Out  of  that  effort  developed  a  further 
plan  to  secure  $6,000,000  more  and  a  thousand 
new  workers,  to  equip  their  educational  and  mis- 
sionary work  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  pro- 
vide needed  leaders  for  their  enlarging  mission- 
ary operations.  The  testimony  of  the  leaders  in 
this  work  is  that  by  these  methods  large  numbers 
of  men  and  women  are  being  led  out  into  abso- 
lutely new  standards  of  stewardship;  and  along 
with  this  their  lives  are  being  wonderfully  en- 
riched. Already  over  two  million  dollars  and 
many  new  workers  have  been  secured  on  their 
present  campaign  and  they  have  no  doubt  of 
completing  the  work  they  have  so  successfully 
begun.  They  had  not  gone  far  toward  raising 
the  larger  amount  when  one  man  in  the  West 
undertook  to  give  one  million  dollars  himself,  on 
condition  that  the  whole  six  millions  be  secured. 
There  are  other  men  and  women  in  all  the  de- 
nominations who  can  be  led  to  give  in  amounts  of 
a  million  dollars  or  more,  if  only  the  case  can  be 
got  fairly  before  them,  in  an  atmosphere  where 
the  Spirit  of  God  can  work.  And  nothing  could 
bring  greater  personal  blessing  and  joy  to  them 
than  to  be  led  out  into  this  great  service. 

There   is   no   greater   need   in   the   organized 

124 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

church  life  of  America  today  than  to  have  at 
least  one  strong  man  in  each  denomination  set 
aside  to  do  nothing  but  cultivate  the  larger 
givers.  Pastors  everywhere  should  heartily  co- 
operate in  all  such  efforts  without  trying  to  fer- 
ret out  all  such  special  gifts  to  swell  the  financial 
reports  of  their  congregations.  It  will  be  far 
better  not  to  have  these  special  gifts  included  in 
the  statistical  report  of  the  local  church.  Many 
large  givers  can  only  be  led  to  make  these  special 
gifts  in  case  they  are  regarded  as  confidential. 
And  there  is  always  the  peril  of  a  congregation 
being  satisfied  if  its  total  contributions  are  fairly 
respectable — even  though  the  bulk  of  the  amount 
may  have  been  given  by  one  or  two  persons.  To 
avoid  these  real  dangers  and  difficulties,  let  these 
special  large  contributions  only  appear  in  the  re- 
ports of  the  Missionary  Boards  of  the  denomina- 
tion. 

It  is  important  that  all  leaders  of  the  Church 
have  clear  convictions  about  the  standard  general 
methods  of  finance  in  the  local  church.  During 
the  past  ten  years,  very  rapid  progress  has  been 
made  toward  the  standardization  of  these 
methods  in  the  churches  of  North  America. 
Practically  all  of  the  communions  have  now  ac- 
cepted these  basic  principles: 

1.  The  contributions  both  to  local  church 
support  and  to  all  missions  and  benevolences 
should  be  on  the  basis  of  a  weekly  subscription 
from  every  member  and  adherent  of  the  church. 

125 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

2.  There  should  be  an  organized  personal 
canvass  for  subscriptions  in  each  church  every 
year. 

3.  This  canvass  to  be  effective  must  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  thorough  and  unhurried  educational 
campaign. 

It  is  due  very  largely  to  the  wide  adoption  of 
these  principles  that  the  contributions  of  Amer- 
ican churches  to  missionary  purposes  have  been 
increasing  so  rapidly  during  recent  years. 

It  is  important  in  this  connection  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  general  difficulty  in  all  commun- 
ions in  getting  equitable  consideration  for  foreign 
missions,  among  the  many  urgent  calls  for  finan- 
cial assistance  that  come  to  all  churches.  The 
easy,  superficial  thing  to  do  is  to  say,  here  are 
seven  or  ten  or  twenty  different  agencies  asking 
for  financial  help,  one  of  these  being  foreign 
missions.  We  must  give  something  to  each  one  of 
these  agencies,  and  so  cannot  give  more  than 
25%,  or  33%,  or  40%,  of  the  missionary  and  ben- 
evolent offerings,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  the  work 
in  the  non-Christian  world.  As  every  agent  and 
member  of  a  committee  or  board  of  each  of  these 
many  home  agencies  is  apt  to  be  partial  to  his 
own  particular  department,  this  makes  a  large 
and  formidable  opposition  to  giving  the  work 
abroad  such  share  of  contributions  as  the  needs 
of  the  work  really  call  for  and  demand.  This 
is  a  result  that  is  all  but  inevitable  while  the 
churches  are  organized  as  they  are  at  present, 

126 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

with  the  entire  work  abroad  administered 
through  a  single  agency,  while  the  work  at  home 
is  administered  by  so  many  boards  and  agencies 
as  often  to  be  confusing  and  bewildering. 

Yet  the  combined  work  of  all  these  agencies 
at  home  does  not  cover  so  broad  a  field  of  opera- 
tions as  does  the  work  abroad,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fact  that  we  have  at  least  ten  times  the  num- 
ber of  people  to  reach  abroad  that  we  have  at 
home.  Many  things  are  done  by  the  State  in 
America,  that  must  be  done  by  the  Church  in  the 
non-Christian  world.  This  is  particularly  true 
of  public  education,  and  also  of  medical  work  of 
all  kinds,  even  including  Medical  Colleges. 

Every  Foreign  Missionary  Society  is  com- 
pelled to  support  a  system  of  schools  from  the 
primary  grade  to  the  university,  out  of  its  cur- 
rent funds.  In  addition  to  these  extra  expenses, 
there  is  need  on  every  foreign  mission  field  of  all 
the  multiplied  lines  of  activity  that  are  carried 
on  at  home  through  the  various  separate  agen- 
cies. If  the  whole  benevolent  and  missionary 
work  of  the  Church  were  administered  by  one 
agency,  whose  members  were  equally  intelligent 
about  the  needs  of  the  work,  both  abroad  and  at 
home,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  not  less  than  50%  of 
the  entire  benevolent  and  missionary  offerings  of 
all  the  churches  would  be  spent  abroad,  and  in 
many  cases  it  would  rise  to  at  least  60%  of  the 
whole. 


127 


MISSIONS  AND  LEADERSHIP 

The  plan  of  some  people  in  view  of  the  needs 
of  the  whole  work,  is  to  designate  at  least  as 
much  of  their  offerings  to  missions  and  benevo- 
lences as  to  congregational  expenses  of  all  kinds; 
and  also  to  give  at  least  as  much  to  the  work 
abroad  as  to  the  combined  work  of  all  benevolent 
and  missionary  agencies  at  home.  This  is  a  very 
conservative  course  to  follow,  a  course  that  is 
more  fair  to  all  the  other  agencies  involved  than 
it  is  to  the  work  abroad,  in  view  of  its  magnitude 
and  urgency.  But  very  few  pastors  and  church 
officers  have  yet  reached  anything  like  these  pro- 
portions in  the  distribution  of  the  offerings  of 
the  people. 

It  is  very  striking  how  many  congregations 
have  been  able  to  multiply  their  offerings  to  mis- 
sionary purposes,  by  simply  stopping  to  ask 
themselves  whether  the  combined  work  of  Christ 
in  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is  not  at  least  as  big 
and  important  as  the  work  in  that  single  congre- 
gation. And  if  so,  whether  the  congregation 
should  not  give  at  least  as  much  for  work  outside 
itself  as  it  spends  upon  itself.  There  are  now  at 
least  two  hundred  congregations  in  the  United 
States  that  give  more  for  outside  work  than  for 
all  congregational  expenses.  There  are  at  least 
ten  thousand  others  that  ought  to  do  this.  Every 
reasonable  expedient  should  be  adopted  that  will 
help  to  get  people  to  take  the  broader  view  of  the 
Kingdom  and  not  forever  be  bound  by  their  im- 
mediate horizons. 

There  is  spiritual  wisdom  and  strategy  in  this 
course.  The  divine  law  is:  ''There  is  that  scat- 
tereth  and  increaseth  yet  more.  And  there  is 
that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet  but  it  tendeth 

128 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

only  to  want.  The  liberal  soul  shall  be  made  fat : 
And  he  that  watereth  shall  be  watered  also  him- 
self." Proverbs  11:24,25.  This  law  has  full 
illustration  during  recent  years.  The  churches 
of  America  have  more  than  doubled  their  foreign 
missionary  contributions  during  the  last  decade, 
under  the  impulse  of  attempting  actually  to 
evangelize  the  world.  Instead  of  these  greatly 
enlarged  contributions  decreasing  benevolent  of- 
ferings to  work  at  home,  exactly  the  opposite  re- 
sult has  occurred.  The  increase  to  these  objects 
has  actually  been  greater  than  the  increase  to 
work  abroad,  though  the  work  abroad  has  un- 
doubtedly been  the  main  challenge  that  has  pro- 
duced the  result. 

And  what  is  even  more  striking  is  this,  that 
the  increase  to  congregational  expenses  has  dur- 
ing these  very  same  years  been  greater  than  the 
total  increase  to  all  forms  of  missionary  work 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  No  longer  can  anyone 
in  touch  with  the  facts  argue  that  enlarged  mis- 
sionary giving  depletes  the  local  church  treasury. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  very  surest  way  to 
solve  all  local  financial  problems.  That  is  a  poor 
strategist  who  fails  to  use  the  world-appeal  to 
lift  his  people  into  their  largest  expression  of 
unselfishness  and  Christ-likeness.  Attempt  to 
solve  the  world-problem,  and  local  problems  will 
be  included  and  solved  with  a  speed  and  power 
otherwise  unattainable. 

There  is  an  important  time  element  in  spirit- 

129 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

ual  investments.  A  thousand  dollars  invested  at 
just  the  right  conjuncture  of  circumstances  may 
increase  and  multiply  at  a  phenomenal  rate. 
There  are  tides  in  the  affairs  of  nations  as  there 
are  in  the  case  of  individuals.  A  million  dollars 
expended  for  evangelization  at  the  opportune 
moment  in  a  nation's  life,  may  mean  more  than 
ten  times  that  amount  a  few  years  later.  Never 
was  there  a  period  in  so  many  nations  that 
seemed  so  truly  the  very  nick  of  time,  as  the 
present  hour,  in  the  matter  of  pressing  our  mis- 
sionary propaganda.  This  fact  has  a  large 
bearing  on  the  question  of  men  and  women  be- 
coming their  own  executors.  Instead  of  making 
wills,  and  making  money  wait  for  death  to  re- 
lease it  for  the  Lord's  w^ork,  why  not  invest  it  at 
once  and  see  it  do  its  work  while  the  conditions 
are  so  favorable? 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Goucher  of  Baltimore  began  to  spend  about 
S5,000  a  year  in  one  district  in  India.  They  in- 
vested about  $100,000  in  the  district  during 
twenty  years.  The  tangible  result  was  50,000 
converts  out  of  paganism!  Dr.  Goucher  is  still 
living  and  we  hope  he  may  be  for  many  years 
to  come.  Supposing  he  had  only  had  grace 
enough  to  give  the  $100,000  in  his  last  will  and 
testament,  when  he  could  not  possibly  hold  on  to 
it  any  longer?  It  would  do  good,  of  course,  but 
how  could  it  ever  catch  up  in  productiveness  for 
the  kingdom  with  the  same  amount  spent  intel- 

130 


MONEY  AND   THE   KINGDOM 

ligently  and  deliberately,  when  he  was  sound  and 
in  good  health?  Where  would  the  50,000  people 
be  that  he  rescued  from  heathenism,  if  he  had 
not  released  this  potential  energy  until  after  he 
had  gone  where  money  can't  buy  anything? 
Thousands  of  these  converts  will  get  to  glory 
ahead  of  him,  and  be  ready  to  welcome  him  when 
he  arrives.  Are  you  arranging  for  any  very  ex- 
tensive welcome  of  that  sort? 

A  sane  and  strong  missionary  leader  of  one 
of  the  great  churches  of  America  declares  it  as 
his  conviction  that  under  present  conditions  an 
added  investment  of  $100,000  a  year  in  India, 
would  add  literally  millions  of  converts  inside  the 
next  few  years.  The  statement  appears  incred- 
ible. Yet  many  leaders  familiar  with  the  situa- 
tion believe  that  he  is  right.  Does  it  not  seem 
an  appalling  thing  that  such  an  opportunity  as 
this  may  be  neglected?  Opportunities  like  this, 
— perhaps  as  great  as  this, — challenge  us  at  this 
moment  from  many  parts  of  the  non-Christian 
world.  Will  the  Church  of  our  day  worthily  meet 
its  unprecedented  and  matchless  opportunity? 

An  epitaph  in  an  English  churchyard  reads: 

"Wh'at  I  spent  that  I  had; 
What  I  saved  that  I  lost; 
What  I  gave  that  I  have." 

Carve  your  name  high  over  shifting  sand, 
Where  the  steadfast  rocks  defy  decay — 

"All  you  can  hold  in  your  cold,  dead  hand 
Is  what  you  have  given  away." 

131 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

Build  your  pyramid  skyward,  and  stand, 
Gazed  at  by  millions,  cultured  they  say— 

"All  you  can  hold  in  your  cold,  dead  hand 
Is  what  yoUi  have  given  away," 

Count  your  wide  conquests  of  sea  and  land. 
Heap  up  the  gold,  and  hoard  as  you  may- 

"All  you  can  hold  in  your  cold,  dead  hand 
Is  what  you  have  given  away," 


132 


Why  the  Battle  Halts 

or 

Leadership,  Its  Opportunity,  Its  Development 

and  Its  Price 

The  greatest  undeveloped  force  in  the  world 
is  the  Church.  If  its  latent  power  could  be 
called  out  and  directed,  results  would  be  achieved 
which  would  be  the  astonishment  of  the  ages. 

The  Church  has  enormous  latent  financial  re- 
sources. The  present  contributions  of  Ameri- 
can Protestants  to  organized  church  work  are 
something  over  300  million  dollars  annually. 
This  is  approximately  30  cents  per  week  from 
each  church  member,  on  the  average.  By  adding 
five  cents  a  week  to  the  giving  of  these  church 
members,  you  add  over  sixty  million  dollars  an- 
nually to  the  revenues  of  the  Church.  If  the 
American  Church  could  be  led  to  give  even  one- 
tenth  of  her  income  to  the  Lord,  the  total  would 
probably  be  over  one  billion  dollars  a  year,  in- 
stead of  three  hundred  millions.  But  if  really 
worthy  standards  of  stewardship  were  generally 
accepted,  this  total  amount  would  doubtless  be  at 
least  doubled  again,  making  two  billion  dollars 
annually  for  Christian  purposes.  If  this  esti- 
mate  is  correct,  the  Church   is  not  now   using 

133 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

more  than  about  one-seventh  of  her  potential 
financial  ability.  Yet  the  measure  of  giving  is 
a  fair  criterion  by  which  to  judge  the  degree  of 
spiritual  life  that  is  present.  "He  that  hath  the 
world's  goods,  and  beholdeth  his  brother  in  need 
and  shutteth  up  his  compassion  from  him,  how 
doth  the  love  of  God  abide  in  him?"    I  John  3 :17. 

Of  its  spiritual  power,  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  the  Church  has  yet  developed  even  one- 
seventh  of  its  capacity  for  usefulness.  It  is  prob- 
ably true  that  not  one-seventh  of  the  Church 
members  of  today  would  even  claim  to  be  follow- 
ing Christ's  commands  as  the  great  imperatives 
of  their  lives.  It  is  equally  certain  that  not  one- 
seventh  of  the  membership  are  making  any 
serious  effort  to  win  anyone  else  to  Christ  as 
Saviour  and  Lord.  Even  among  the  most  ad- 
vanced Christians  there  is  an  almost  universal 
feeling  that  they  might  be  of  far  greater  use  to 
God  and  the  world  than  they  have  ever  yet  been. 
We  are  probably  understating  the  actual  facts, 
then,  when  we  say  that  not  one-seventh  of  the 
power  of  the  Church  for  personal  spiritual 
service  has  yet  been  called  out. 

It  is  still  harder  to  estimate  the  undeveloped 
prayer-possibilities  of  the  Church.  When  one  is 
dealing  with  finances,  it  is  possible  to  feel  that 
we  have  some  standards  of  measurement  that  we 
can  partially  appreciate  and  comprehend.  In 
the  realm  of  possible  personal  service  and  use- 
fulness, new  elements  are  introduced  which  are 

134 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

far  more  elusive  and  difficult  to  measure.  When 
one  enters  the  domain  of  prayer,  the  forces  being 
dealt  with  are  infinite,  and  their  reach  is  beyond 
all  limit  of  time  or  space  or  thought.  We  are 
unable,  therefore,  to  imagine  what  might  occur, 
if  the  church  as  a  whole  really  set  herself  to  pray 
for  the  things  that  are  revealed  as  according  to 
the  will  of  God. 

It  is  to  the  development  and  direction  of  these 
latent  potentialities  of  the  Church  that  Christian 
leaders  of  our  day  are  summoned.  Whatever 
opportunity  may  be  provided  to  the  highest 
gifts  and  qualities  of  leadership  in  business  or  in 
politics  or  in  education,  none  of  these  compare  in 
their  ultimate  possibilities  with  the  limitless  and 
overwhelming  field  of  achievement  open  to  those 
who  succeed  in  leading  the  Church  out  into  her 
divinely-appointed  inheritance  and  destiny. 

Wherever  some  Christians  go  things  begin  to 
happen.  It  does  not  seem  greatly  to  matter 
what  the  particular  type  of  community  is,  real 
work  is  done  and  lasting  results  are  accom- 
plished. What  is  the  quality  that  makes  these 
successful  people  different  from  others?  It  is 
initiative.  It  is  independence  of  character,  of 
judgment  and  of  action.      It  is  leadership. 

Most  people  seem  born  to  follow  the  leader- 
ship of  some  more  dominant  personality.  ''Men 
walk  singly  and  alone,"  says  Bishop  Brent,  "only 
until  the  right  voice  calls  them  to  follow.  The 
world  is  greedy  for  leadership,  so  much  so  that 

135 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

it  is  easy  to  impose  upon  the  credulity  of  the  mul- 
titudes. But  this  makes  it  all  the  more  neces- 
sary that  your  leadership  should  be  a  real  thing, 
sound  to  the  core,  determined  as  fate,  pure  as  the 
sea.  A  leader  is  one  who  goes  before,  who  keeps 
in  advance  of  the  crowd  without  detaching  him- 
self from  the  crowd,  but  so  influencing  them  as  to 
attach  them  to  his  ideal  selfhood.  Obviously  and 
of  necessity  he  is  a  social  personage  who  has  the 
power  of  enabling  other  people  to  see  what  he 
sees,  to  feel  what  he  feels,  to  desire  what  he  de- 
sires. He  contracts  the  crowd  into  the  span  of 
his  own  personality.  He  converts  them  into  a 
composite  second  self.  He  does  not  hesitate  to 
say  'Follow  me,'  nor  does  he  lose  in  humility  in 
the  invitation,  in  that,  for  the  moment  at  any 
rate,  he  is  the  best  available  embodiment  of  the 
ideal  that  he  lives  to  promote. 

He  whose  sense  of  purpose  for  life  is  more 
acute  and  glowing  and  definite  than  his  fellows 
is  a  leader.  All  leaders  worthy  of  the  name 
possess  common  characteristics,  they  'see  life 
steadily  and  see  it  whole;' — they  discern,  more 
distinctly  than  their  fellows,  evidences  of  pur- 
pose in  themselves  and  in  human  life  at  large. 
They  aid  the  world-purpose  by  their  activity  and 
their  surrender  to  it.  The  truest  leader  is  he 
who  best  aids  the  world-purpose  in  extinguishing 
the  lower  elements  that  are  at  war  with  it,  and 
by  encouraging  the  production  of  the  higher." 
These  are  selected  sentences  from  Bishop  Brent's 

136 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

suggestive  lectures  on  leadership  before  Harvard 
University. 

The  hardest  men  to  find  are  always  the  men 
for  the  largest  positions.  And  nowhere  else  is 
real  leadership  so  scarce  as  in  the  Church.  Not 
that  the  Church  does  not  contain  in  its  member- 
ship a  multitude  of  the  most  gifted  leaders  in 
secular  callings.  But  these  men  are  as  a  rule 
doing  almost  nothing  in  the  Church.  For  some 
reason  the  Church  has  not  called  forth  the  same 
qualities  of  leadership  that  business  and  politics 
have  done.  It  would  be  well  if  the  whole  expla- 
nation of  this  fact  could  be  revealed.  Doubtless, 
human  selfishness  and  personal  ambition  are  im- 
portant factors  in  the  case.  But  may  it  not  be 
largely  due  also  to  the  way  in  which  the  Church 
is  managed?  What  conditions  in  the  Church 
itself  discourage  leadership? 

1.  One  trouble  is  that  church  services  are 
emphasized  rather  than  Christian  service.  The 
standard  of  success  which  most  ministers  and 
churches  have  set  up  is  attendance  at  the  stated 
services.  If  these  are  well  attended  the  church 
is  judged  to  be  in  a  prosperous  condition.  But 
thiis  is  not  a  sufficient  test.  The  real  measure  of 
success  is  what  the  members  of  the  church  as  a 
whole  are  doing  personally  to  serve  and  help 
others.  The  Christian  who  abides  in  Christ  and 
has  Christ  abiding  in  him  brings  forth  much 
fruit  habitually.  If  members  of  the  Church  gen- 
erally are  not  bearing  much  fruit,  something  is 

137 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

radically  wrong.  When  the  Church  becomes  a 
working  body  of  Christians,  leadership  will  in- 
evitably be  developed.  It  waits  for  real  leaders 
to  set  it  at  work.  It  takes  leadership  to  develop 
and  multiply  leaders.  If  this  were  one  of  the 
main  ideals  of  ministers,  and  they  were  to  make 
the  art  of  leadership  one  of  their  chief  studies,  a 
better  day  for  the  Church  would  soon  dawn. 

2.  Another  alarming  weakness  of  modern 
church  life  is  that  the  preacher  is  expected  to  do 
practically  all  the  public  talking  and  all  the  ac- 
tive personal  work.  Most  preachers  are  so  oc- 
cupied with  the  preparation  of  sermons  that  they- 
have  scant  time  left  either  for  personal  dealing 
with  individuals,  or  for  leading  the  members  of 
their  churches  into  the  active  work  of  which  they 
are  capable.  If  one  were  to  judge  by  observing 
the  practice  of  most  ministers,  he  would  be 
forced  to  conclude  that  very  few  of  them  have 
really  made  a  study  of  the  principles  of  setting 
Christian  people  at  work  or  calling  out  their 
capacities  of  effective  Christian  service.  These 
men  may  be  preachers,  but  they  are  not  skillful 
leaders.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  average 
minister  spends  one-fourth  as  much  time  in 
training  and  leading  his  people  in  actual  service 
as  he  does  in  preparing  sermons  and  addresses 
with  which  to  feed  their  spiritual  life. 

Yet  the  real  secret  of  Christian  growth  is  not 
so  much  in  being  fed  with  predigested  food,  as  in 
getting  into  vital  contact  with  the  Lord  for  one's 

138 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

self.  And  nothing  will  stimulate  this  so  power- 
fully as  the  attempt  to  help  someone  else.  The 
chief  reason  why  Christian  people  are  so  poorly 
developed  is  not  because  they  are  not  fed  enough, 
but  because  they  do  not  work  enough  and  so  they 
never  learn  to  lean  hard  on  God  for  the  fitness  in 
which  to  do  their  work. 

One  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  also  that  the 
ministers  do  entirely  too  large  a  proportion  of 
the  talking  in  connection  with  the  Church  and  its 
services  and  work.  They  do  more  talking  than 
they  can  do  without  excessive  strain,  and  the 
people  do  not  express  themselves  half  as  much  as 
is  essential  for  their  spiritual  health  and  growth. 
In  some  way  both  of  these  difficulties  must  be 
overcome. 

Not  only  does  our  present  system  fail  to  de- 
velop the  average  preacher  into  a  real  leader,  but 
it  leaves  the  capacity  for  leadership  among  the 
men  and  women  of  the  Church  dormant. 

The  Church  is  full  of  men  and  women  of 
capacity,  who  are  doing  big  things  in  all  the  sec- 
ular work  of  the  world.  But  in  the  Church  most 
of  these  same  people  are  mere  figure-heads,  ex- 
cept perhaps  for  their  contributions  of  money, 
which  is  the  smallest  and  cheapest  thing  that 
anyone  can  give.  They  have  never  been  seriously 
challenged  to  put  the  same  degree  of  intelligence 
and  initiative  into  the  work  of  the  Church  that 
they  put  into  their  own  business  affairs.  Some 
of  them  have  tried  to  find  something  to  do  in  the 

139 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

Church,  but  have  not  been  successful  and  have 
settled  down  into  a  life  of  inactivity  and  spiritual 
stagnation.  Sooner  or  later  many  of  them  drift 
away  from  the  Church  altogether. 

Christ's  declared  method  of  propagating  His 
gospel  was  by  personal  testimony.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  promised, 
not  merely  to  Apostles  but  to  every  disciple.  Yet 
in  the  Church  life  of  today  not  one  person  in  ten 
is  giving  any  testimony.  And  most  preachers 
are  not  asking  or  expecting  their  members  to  be 
witnesses.  To  come  closer  still  to  the  heart  of 
the  problem  a  great  many  of  the  ministers  do 
little  or  no  personal  witnessing  themselves. 
Little  wonder  that  with  all  our  manifold  ma- 
chinery and  expensive  equipment  we  add  only 
about  2%  a  year  to  our  Church  membership  on 
profession  of  their  faith!  If  we  had  general 
witnessing  on  the  part  of  all  Christians,  we 
would  not  need  so  much  preaching.  Indeed  we 
would  not  have  time  for  it.  And  the  people 
would  as  a  rule  come  to  church  if  they  had  been 
at  work  during  the  week.  People  who  feed 
heavily  without  exercise  soon  get  indigestion  or 
dyspepsia  and  lose  appetite.  The  basic  trouble 
is  that  Christian  people  are  not  working  at  their 
religion.  They  are  not  witnessing.  This  inac- 
tivity makes  them  careless  about  personal  Bible 
study,  about  proper  habits  of  prayer,  and  about 
attendance  at  the  church  services  that  are  held. 
It  also  makes  them  careless  about  their  manner 

140 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

of  life.  Nothing  more  powerfully  stimulates  a 
person  to  live  a  consistent  and  victorious  Chris- 
tian life  than  the  knowledge  that  his  usefulness 
as  a  worker  depends  on  the  depth  and  reality  of 
his  own  present  experience  of  Christ.  Past  ex- 
perience is  not  sufficient.  If  one  is  going  to  be 
a  forceful  witness  for  Christ,  he  must  be  con- 
scious of  what  Christ  is  doing  in  him  and  for  him 
now, — not  last  week  or  last  year.  The  Salvation 
Army  well  illustrates  the  effect  of  witnessing  and 
of  service  in  developing  leaders.  Though  their 
recruits  are  for  the  most  part  from  the  unedu- 
cated classes,  yet  the  work  which  they  do  soon 
gives  them  a  capacity  for  service  and  even  for 
leadership  that  is  far  beyond  that  of  the  ordinary 
church  member. 

There  is,  however,  this  great  encouragement 
in  the  study  of  the  present  situation.  The  people 
are  not  satisfied,  and  want  to  be  led  out  into 
something  better.  On  every  hand  one  finds  a 
hunger  for  a  larger  and  more  fruitful  Christian 
life.  What  the  people  are  waiting  for  is  to  be 
shown, — or  leadership.  The  present  world  sit- 
uation, the  undeveloped  resources  and  capacities 
of  the  members  of  the  churches,  and  their  desire 
for  the  larger  life  that  Christ  means  them  to  live, 
combine  to  present  the  richest  opportunity  for 
real  leadership  that  has  ever  come  to  mortal 
men.  This  opportunity  comes  not  only  to  min- 
isters, though  it  does  come  to  them  with  compell- 
ing force,  but  it  comes   in   a  large   way  to   all 

141 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

Christian  men  and  women.  Whoever  has  the 
capacity  for  independent  thinking  and  acting, 
and  the  courage  to  take  the  initiative  in  attempt- 
ing the  things  that  ought  to  be  done  and  is  will- 
ing to  pay  the  price  of  complete  obedience  to 
Christ,  there  you  have  a  potential  leader. 

How  can  Christian  leadership  be  developed  in 
one's  self  and  in  others? 

1.  The  conviction  that  God  has  definitely 
planned  for  every  life  the  largest  work  of  which 
that  life  is  capable  is  a  good  foundation  upon 
which  to  build.  This  means  that  one  must  al- 
ways be  reaching  out  to  exert  his  own  maximum 
influence  and  must  always  be  studying  how  to 
call  forth  larger  exercise  of  spiritual  power  in  all 
the  people  he  meets.  Most  people  have  never  yet 
discovered  themselves  and  their  own  possibil- 
ities. Only  a  small  fraction  of  Christian  people 
have  yet  come  to  believe  that  God  has  a  definite 
plan  for  their  lives,  to  say  nothing  of  trying  to 
find  it  and  follow  it. 

The  very  first  condition  of  helping  others  to 
find  God's  plan  and  will  for  them  is  to  make  sure 
that  we  have  found  them  for  ourselves.  The 
quality  of  service  rises  and  falls  automatically 
with  the  fluctuations  of  one's  own  spiritual  life. 
No  law  in  the  realm  of  the  soul  seems  more  rigid 
and  unchangeable  than  this,  that  "apart  from 
Christ — at  any  moment — we  can  do  nothing." 
*'The  value  of  our  work  for  God  depends  on  the 
degree  of  our  intimacy  with  Him  at  the  time  we 
do  it."  142 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

Nothing  is  more  important  then  than  to  dis- 
cover the  secret  of  the  life  of  abiding  in  Christ. 
This  involves  a  life  of  habitual  victory  over  sin, 
of  constant  fellov^ship  with  Christ,  of  ceaseless 
fruit-bearing.  The  way  into  all  of  these  rich 
blessings  may  be  summarized  in  three  words: 
Surrender,  Obedience,  and  Faith.  These  three 
may  be  still  further  concentrated  into  the  single 
word  Obedience,  for  it  involves  surrender  and 
leads  to  faith.  The  central  thing  needed  in  the 
life  of  the  Church  and  of  each  Christian  today  is 
simply  obedience  to  the  will  of  God. 
And  nowhere  can  one  find  so  brief  and 
comprehensive  a  summary  of  that  will  as 
in  the  specific  commands  of  Jesus  Himself. 
There  are  at  least  thirty-four  of  these  definite 
commands,  and  the  number  might  easily  be  in- 
creased by  adding  those  commands  that  are  im- 
plied in  other  forms  of  His  teaching.  Yet  these 
three  new  Testament  decalogues  and  more,  in  the 
form  of  imperatives,  may  fairly  be  regarded  as 
representing  Christ's  will  for  His  disciples.  Let 
us  put  them  down  here,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  occur  in  the  four  gospels  and  the  book  of 
Acts,  even  though  this  is  not  their  chronological 
order,  and  test  our  own  lives  by  them. 

Some  of  the  Definite  Commandments  of 
Christ 

1.  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world.  Let  your 
light  so  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see  your 

143 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

good  works  and  glorify  your  Father  who  is  in 
heaven. — Mat.  5:16. 

2.  Be  not  angry  with  thy  brother,  but  be 
reconciled  to  him. — Mat.  5:21-24. 

3.  Lose  your  right  eye  or  right  hand,  rather 
than  tolerate  impurity  of  heart. — Mat.  5:27-30. 
See  also  Mat.  5:8. 

4.  Swear  not  at  all.— Mat.  5 :34. 

5.  Resist  not  him  that  is  evil. — Mat.  5:38-41. 

6.  Love  your  enemies  and  pray  for  them 
that  persecute  you. — Mat.  5:44-48. 

7.  When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thine  inner 
chamber,  and  having  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father  who  is  in  secret. — Mat.  6:6. 

8.  After  this  manner  pray  ye ;  Thy  Kingdom 
come,  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth. — Mat.  6:9,  10. 

9.  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on 
earth,  but  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in 
heaven.— Mat.  6:19,20. 

10.  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon, 
therefore  be  not  anxious  for  your  life,  but  seek 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness. 
—Mat.  6:24-33. 

11.  Judge  not.— Mat.  7:1. 

12.  Ask,  and  your  heavenly  Father  will 
give.— Mat.  7:7. 

13.  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them. — Mat. 
7:12. 

14.  The  harvest  indeed  is  plenteous,  but  the 
laborers  are  few.  Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of 
the  harvest  that  he  send  forth  laborers  unto  his 
harvest.— Mat.  9:38. 

15.  Confess  me  before  men. — Mat.  10:32. 

16.  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 

144 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

thy  mind.      This  is  the  great  and  first  command- 
ment.—Mat.  22:37. 

17.  And  a  second  like  unto  it  this,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. — Mat.  22:39. 
See  Rom.  13:10. 

18.  Be  ye  also  ready ;  for  in  an  hour  that  ye 
think  not,  the  Son  of  man  cometh. — Mat.  24:44. 

19.  Watch  and  pray  that  ye  enter  not  into 
temptation. — Mat.  26:41. 

20.  All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me 
in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore  and  make 
disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you:  and  lo,  I  am 
with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
—Mat.  28:18-20. 

21.  The  time  is  fulfilled,  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  at  hand:  repent  ye,  and  believe  in  the 
gospel. — Mark  1:14. 

22.  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me: 
forbid  them  not :  for  to  such  belongeth  the  King- 
dom of  God.— Mark  10:14. 

23.  Have  faith  in  God.— Mark  11:22. 

24.  Whensoever  ye  stand  praying,  forgive, 
if  ye  have  aught  against  anyone,  that  your 
Father  who  is  in  heaven  may  forgive  you. — 
Mark  11:25. 

25.  Be  ye  merciful  even  as  your  Father  is 
merciful. — Luke  6:36. 

26.  If  any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and  fol- 
low me. — Luke  9:23. 

27.  Ask  for  and  receive  the  Holy  Spirit. 
—Luke  11:9-13.      See  also  Acts  1:8. 

28.  Take  heed  and  keep  yourselves  from  all 
covetousness. — Luke  12:15. 

145 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

29.  This  is  my  body  which  is  given  for  you : 
this  do  in  remembrance  of  me. — Luke  22:19. 

80.  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields 
that  they  are  white  already  unto  the  harvest. 
—John  4:35. 

31.  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another;  even  as  I  have  loved 
you  that  ye  love  one  another. — John  13:34. 

32.  Abide  in  me  and  bear  much  fruit. — John 
15:4,5. 

33.  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so 
send  I  you. — John  20:21. 

34.  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses,  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria,  and 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth. — Acts  1:8. 

In  proportion  to  one's  faithfulness  in  obeying 
these  commands  of  Christ  will  be  his  own  power 
of  leadership.  And  no  other  method  of  develop- 
ing others  to  their  highest  capacity  in  every  way 
can  be  so  important  as  leading  them  into  the  at- 
titude and  habit  of  full  obedience  to  Christ. 
Fellowship  with  Him  multiplies  Christian  lead- 
ers on  every  hand. 

2.  The  definite  acceptance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  the  only  adequate  equipment  for  witnessing 
and  for  service  of  all  kinds  is  of  the  highest  im- 
portance. It  is  not  an  optional  thing  with  any 
Christian  whether  or  not  he  will  receive  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  is  one  of  the  commands  of  Christ 
that  comes  in  various  forms,  each  one  of  which 
adds  emphasis  to  His  declared  will  in  the  matter. 
Perhaps  the  four  most  striking  statements  that 

146. 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

Jesus  made  with  reference  to  our  receiving  the 
Holy  Spirit  were  the  following: 

1.  And  I  will  pray  the  Father  and  He  shall 
give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  be  with 
you  for  ever.  Even  the  Spirit  of  truth:  whom 
the  world  cannot  receive;  for  it  beholdeth  him 
not,  neither  knoweth  him :  ye  know  him ;  for  he 
abideth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you. — John  14: 
16-17. 

2.  *  *  *  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go 
away;  for  if  1  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will 
not  come  unto  you ;  but  if  I  go,  I  will  send  him 
unto  you. — John  16:7. 

3.  And  being  assembled  together  with  them. 
He  charged  them  not  to  depart  from  Jerusalem 
but  to  wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  which, 
said  he,  ye  heard  from  me :  For  John  indeed  bap- 
tized with  water;  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  in  the 
Holy  Spirit  not  many  days  hence. 

But  ye  shall  receive  power,  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  come  upon  you :  and  ye  shall  be  my  wit- 
nesses both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and 
Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth. — Acts  1 :4,  5,  8. 

4.  And  I  say  unto  you,  ask,  and  it  shall  be 
given  you;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock  and  it 
shall  be  opened  unto  you.  For  every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth;  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth; 
and  to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened. 

If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good 
gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall 
your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  him?— Luke  11:9,  10, 13. 

From  these  and  similar  passages,  it  is  clear 
that  the  acceptance  by  faith  of  the  gift  of  the 

147 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

Holy  Spirit  is  not  an  optional  thing  but  is  an  im- 
perative obligation  upon  all  Christians. 

That  we  may  keep  the  channels  wide  open  be- 
tween ourselves  and  the  life  of  God,  it  is  also  vital 
that  we  give  proper  place  and  emphasis  to  per- 
sonal Bible  study  and  prayer  as  the  chief  means 
through  which  the  Spirit  of  God  speaks  to  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  men.  One  of  the  chief  re- 
sults of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  the  be- 
ginning was  courage  for  witnessing.  Only  a 
divinely-bestowed  courage  will  enable  us  and 
others  to  venture  to  undertake  the  things  that 
must  be  done  in  order  that  Christ  may  be  en- 
throned in  all  hearts,  and  in  the  total  life  of  the 
world. 

3.  It  will  help  us  to  become  leaders  and  to 
develop  other  leaders  if  we  remember  that  each 
person  is  just  as  responsible  as  anyone  else  in  the 
world  for  doing  whatever  needs  to  be  done.  The 
lazy  habit  of  blaming  someone  else  for  the  un- 
satisfactory conditions  we  find  about  us,  breeds 
indolence,  cowardice  and  hypocrisy.  There  are 
no  two  standards  of  moral  conduct  to  be  found 
in  the  Bible,  one  for  preachers  and  one  for  lay- 
men. And  there  are  no  two  standards  of  duty. 
Christ  asks  of  every  disciple  that  he  give  his  best 
to  the  work  of  building  the  eternal  Kingdom. 
Any  honest,  prayerful  attempt  to  get  done  any- 
thing that  clearly  needs  to  be  done  is  a  definite 
step  toward  leadership.  Ours  is  an  absolutely 
impartial  God.      He  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

148 


WHY  THE   BATTLE  HALTS 

He  will  use  anyone  who  is  fit  to  be  used  and  will- 
ing to  be  used.  The  marvel  is  that  He  is 
able  to  use  the  men  who  do  not  have  greater  ap- 
parent fitness.  But  the  one  thing  that  most 
completely  hinders  God  and  thwarts  His  plan  is 
unwillingness  and  disobedience  on  His  people's 
part.  ''Thy  people  are  freewill  offerings  in  the 
day  of  Thy  power,  in  the  beauty  of  holiness." 
— Psalm  110:3.  God's  power  can  only  be  re- 
leased through  His  people  when  they  are  in  re- 
ality free-will  offerings. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  God  uses 
human  agency  in  all  His  work.  He  can,  there- 
fore, use  me  in  getting  His  message  to  others, 
and  the  value  of  His  message  is  not  lost  because 
of  the  unworthiness  or  weakness  of  the  messen- 
ger. My  constant  attitude  should  therefore  be, 
"Lord,  what  message  would  you  send  to  this  per- 
son and  that?  Shall  I  speak  it  for  you?"  It 
will  help  us  if  we  remember  that  very  few  people 
ever  get  started  in  new  forms  of  service  until 
called  into  them  by  someone  else.  It  may  be  our 
personal  privilege  to  lead  out  many  people  into 
types  of  work  that  they  would  never  have  under- 
taken but  for  our  initiative  and  encouragement. 
Most  people  who  are  now  in  the  ministry  or 
mission  field  were  first  led  to  think  of  it  by  being 
spoken  to  about  it  by  someone.  Are  you  in  this 
business?  Christ  says  to  all,  'Tray  ye  therefore 
the  Lord  of  the  harvest  to  thrust  forth 
laborers  into  his  harvest."     And  he  wants  us  all 

149 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

to  work  for  the  definite  objects  for  which  we 
pray. 

A  leader  is  one  who  sees  the  way,  who  goes 
ahead,  and  who  gets  others  to  follow  him.  We 
cannot  get  others  to  do  what  we  do  not  do  our- 
selves. And  we  cannot  ordinarily  get  others  to 
go  further  in  any  course  of  action  than  we  go 
ourselves. 

Much  practice  is  essential  to  efficiency  in 
leadership.  Keeping  eternally  at  it,  one  cannot 
help  but  learn  how  to  do  it  better.  Most  things 
are  best  learned  by  doing. 

God  never  could  get  Himself  understood  in 
the  world  until  He  became  incarnate.  ''No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,"  yet  Christ  said,  "He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

As  incarnation  was  the  divine  method  of 
God's  self-revelation  through  Christ,  so  is  it  His 
method  still  of  self-revelation  through  His  fol- 
lowers. ''As  the  Father  hath  sent  me  into  the 
world,"  said  Christ,  ''even  so  send  I  you."  Our 
mission  thus  becomes  merely  a  continuation  and 
completion  of  Christ's  mission  to  the  world. 
The  most  inspiring  conception  that  ever  takes 
possession  of  any  human  being  is  that  we  are 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature  "and  workers 
together  with  God"  in  building  His  eternal 
Kingdom. 

The  measure  of  incarnation  is  always  the 
measure  of  spiritual  power.  Paul  was  able  con- 
sciously to  say,  "I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  nev- 

150 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

ertheless  I  live:  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me."  When  anyone  in  any  age  becomes  thus 
more  conscious  of  Christ's  indwelling  personality 
than  of  his  own,  he  becomes  an  instrument 
through  which  Christ  can  work  in  a  mighty  way 
for  the  redemption  of  the  human  race. 

4.  Counsel  with  others  and  prayer  together 
concerning  the  will  of  God  is  one  of  the  best 
methods  of  successful  leadership  and  of  develop- 
ing leaders. 

*'In  a  multitude  of  counsellors  there  is  safe- 
ty."    Prov.  11:14. 

''Where  there  is  no  counsel,  purposes  are  dis- 
appointed: but  in  a  multitude  of  counsellors 
they  are  established."      Prov.  15:22. 

'There  are  many  devices  in  a  man's  heart, 
but  the  counsel  of  Jehovah,  that  shall  stand." 
Prov.  19:21. 

Under  this  classification  would  come  all  of 
the  best  types  of  committee  work  in  connection 
with  the  Church  and  all  Christian  organizations. 
Only  a  few  committees  take  their  work  seriously 
enough  to  grasp  its  possibilities.  Routine  busi- 
ness is  pushed  through  as  if  it  were  merely  to  be 
gotten  rid  of  as  expeditiously  as  possible.  But 
many  of  the  best  lessons  of  life  are  learned  in 
small  groups  of  people  who  have  some  important 
work  to  do  together.  If  the  members  of  any 
such  group  will  study  their  work  in  its  possible 
outreach  and  spiritual  influence,  and  especially  if 
they  will  take  unhurried  time  for  prayer  over  the 

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MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

work,  and  attempt  to  do  it,  not  in  a  perfunctory 
way,  but  in  the  best  possible  way,  it  will  be 
marvelous  how  it  will  open  up  and  expand  until 
its  possibilities  seem  almost  without  limit. 

There  is  far  too  little  of  either  counsel  or 
prayer  together,  by  ordinary  church  members,  in 
congenial  groups  small  enough  for  informality. 
In  connection  with  all  such  work,  as  the  will  of 
God  becomes  clear,  definite  responsibility  should 
be  assigned,  and  a  time  should  be  fixed  when  re- 
ports shall  be  made  of  work  actually  done.  Many 
persons  can  be  led  in  this  way  to  make  personal 
visits  and  do  a  large  amount  of  splendid  Chris- 
tian work,  who  if  left  to  their  own  initiative, 
would  do  nothing.  We  should  not  be  satisfied  to 
give  people  mere  routine  work  to  do,  such  as 
ushering,  taking  up  the  collection,  and  attending 
meetings  of  committees  or  boards.  Every  Chris- 
tian needs  to  be  ministering  in  a  vital,  personal 
way  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  others,  not  only  for 
the  good  he  can  do,  but  in  order  to  keep  his  own 
heart  warm  with  the  love  of  God.  As  love  is 
expressed  it  grows. 

5.  One  of  the  best  methods  of  developing 
workers  and  leaders  is  through  helping  people  to 
become  real  Bible  students.  One  very  helpful 
method  of  doing  this  is  by  organizing  a  Personal 
Workers'  Bible  Class  of  not  more  than  about  ten 
members.  The  definite  object  of  such  a  class  is 
to  study  the  Bible  for  greater  fitness  for  personal 
Christian  service  and  at  the  same  time  to  agree 

152 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

together  to  do  some  personal  Christian  work 
each  week,  reporting  the  cases  dealt  with  to  the 
class  for  united  prayer.  Every  church  ought  to 
have  several  classes  of  this  type  in  constant  op- 
eration. It  would  be  far  better  in  many  cases  for 
the  hour  of  the  mid-week  service  to  be  used  in 
this  way  rather  than  in  a  so-called  prayer-meet- 
ing, with  only  two  or  three  formal  prayers.  It  is 
easier  to  get  people  to  express  themselves  in  a 
small  meeting  than  in  a  large  one.  And  if  they 
can  be  seated  around  a  large  table,  instead  of  in 
stiff,  formal,  straight  rows,  it  will  be  found  to 
make  personal  expression  much  easier  and  more 
natural.  Having  found  one's  self  in  the  small 
meeting,  it  will  be  easier  to  undertake  larger  re- 
ponsibilities  as  the  powers  and  confidence  are 
developed. 

There  is  no  more  crying  need  in  the  Church 
today  than  that  the  members  generally  should 
learn  how  to  feed  on  the  Word  of  God  for  them- 
selves. Only  a  small  fraction  of  Christians  are 
doing  this  and  in  this  fact  alone  lies  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  weakness  of  the  Church.  People 
cannot  be  healthy  and  strong  without  proper 
habits  of  feeding.  An  army  soon  falls  back  if 
its  food  supply  fails.  The  ordinary  method  of 
preaching  does  not  stimulate  personal  Bible 
study,  and  is  not  as  a  rule  suggestive  of  how 
to  study  the  Word  for  one's  self.  Much  of  the 
preaching  of  the  day  makes  but  scant  use  of 
Scripture.     A  text  is  generally  taken,  but  not  in- 

153 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

frequently  it  is  chiefly  used  as  a  point  of  depart- 
ture.  One  could  attend  most  of  the  churches  for 
many  years,  and  not  secure  any  comprehensive 
grasp  of  the  Bible. 

A  revival  of  appetite  for  the  Bible  must  come 
before  the  Church  becomes  the  conquering  force 
she  is  intended  to  be.  One  of  the  greatest  net 
results  of  the  Student  Christian  Movement  of  the 
past  generation  has  been  the  enlistment  of  many 
thousands  of  students  as  observers  of  "The 
Morning    Watch."  From    fifteen    to    thirty 

minutes  each  morning  spent  in  prayerful  Bible 
study  and  in  Bible-directed  prayer  makes  the 
whole  day  different  and  sooner  or  later  makes  the 
whole  life  different.  An  excellent  plan  of  daily 
systematic  reading  by  which  the  entire  New 
Testament  may  be  read  each  year,  and  the  Old 
Testament  every  two  years,  is  published  by  the 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  some  that  this  entire 
work  of  leadership  is  so  different  from  the  work 
of  preaching  that  some  layman  should  be  em- 
ployed by  each  church  to  take  charge  of  this  de- 
partment. In  most  of  the  churches  this  is  an 
impracticable  plan.  And  it  is  of  doubtful  value 
in  any  case.  What  is  most  needed  is  volunteer 
leadership  and  initiative  developed  on  the  part  of 
large  numbers  of  people.  If  there  is  too  much 
employed  and  paid  leadership,  there  is  always 
the  risk  of  the  balance  of  the  members  leaving  all 
the  real  work  to  such  employees.      The  minister 

154 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

holds  the  key  to  this  situation  in  most  cases.  If 
he  will  give  even  one  full  evening  each  week  to 
the  one  specific  task  of  developing  leaders  in  his 
church,  it  need  not  be  long  until  sufficient  initia- 
tive is  developed  to  set  the  whole  membership  at 
work. 

Only  as  they  are  set  at  real  service  can  the 
rank  and  file  of  church  members  ever  come  to 
their  own  in  the  life  of  the  Church.  Practically 
all  denominations  at  present  are  managed  by  the 
preachers.  This  is  unnatural  and  unhealthy. 
God  never  intended  the  ordinary  disciple  to  be 
submerged  in  this  fashion  in  His  Church.  Lay- 
men are  just  as  responsible  as  preachers  for  per- 
sonal Christian  service.  But  the  traditions  under 
which  we  have  grown  up  put  the  preacher  on  a 
pedestal,  out  of  touch  with  the  people,  and  grad- 
ually the  people  have  come  to  look  to  him  to  do 
all  the  Christian  work  of  the  Church.  This  is 
not  only  perilous,  it  is  deadly.  Only  by  the  sense 
of  personal  responsibility  being  developed  among 
the  whole  membership  of  the  Church  can  we  ever 
hope  to  Christianize  our  civilization  or  to  win  the 
world  to  faith  in  Christ. 

The  Theological  Seminaries  themselves,  in 
many  cases,  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  training  men 
to  change  these  conditions.  Some  seminaries  are 
even  filling  the  minds  of  their  students  with  ques- 
tions and  doubts  rather  than  with  unshakable 
convictions  and  resistless  spiritual  power.  Schol- 
arship is  often  exalted  till  it  develops  into  ration- 

155 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

alism.  In  many  cases  neither  professors  nor 
students  are  keeping  in  vital  touch  with  actual 
present  conditions  and  needs,  through  habitual 
personal  effort  to  lead  men  to  Christ.  It  is  as 
impossible  for  a  Theological  Seminary  to  train 
men  for  effective  Christian  leadership  in  the 
ministry  without  actually  working  with  them  in 
the  salvation  of  others  as  it  would  be  for  a  medical 
college  to  prepare  men  properly  for  surgery 
without  having  any  clinics,  or  hospital  practice. 
The  only  way  to  save  the  seminaries  is  for  the 
professors  and  students  to  keep  active  in  saving 
the  people.  The  model  seminary  was  conducted 
by  Christ.  It  consisted  largely  in  being  with 
Him  as  He  went  about  His  healing  and  saving 
work.  But  we  have  gotten  a  long  way  removed 
from  His  method.  "Character  is  caught  not 
taught.''  No  man  is  fitted  to  teach  in  any  semi- 
nary who  is  not  a  soul-winner  himself.  From 
some  modern  seminaries  it  is  likely  that  the  adop- 
tion of  this  principle  would  eliminate  most  of  the 
faculty.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  the  closing  of 
any  such  institution  would  be  of  any  real  injury 
to  the  Church.  Even  in  some  of  the  colleges  the 
Bible  is  being  taught  in  a  way  that  is  probably 
doing  more  harm  than  good.  Some  earnest 
Christian  parents  are  very  much  concerned 
about  the  effect  of  the  Bible  teaching  which  their 
children  are  receiving  in  these  institutions.  It 
seems  passing  strange  that  some  professors  have 
no    more  ordinary  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things 

156 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

than  to  fill  the  minds  of  young  students 
with  all  the  doubts  and  questions  and  dif- 
fi^^ulties  that  skeptical  scholarship  has  raised 
about  the  Bible,  instead  of  spending  their 
time  in  a  reverent  and  constructive  study 
of  what  the  Book  really  contains  and 
teaches.  The  advice  of  a  great  teacher  of  the 
past  generation  is  both  wise  and  timely :  ''Believe 
your  beliefs  and  doubt  your  doubts,  but  don't 
doubt  your  beliefs  and  believe  your  doubts."  To 
much  of  the  modern  destructive  criticism  of  the 
Bible  Josh  Billings'  remark  would  apply:  "I 
would  rather  not  know  so  many  things  than  to 
know  so  much  that  isn't  so." 

If  I  were  asked  to  summarize  the  principles 
which  successful  leaders  use  in  developing  lead- 
ership in  others,  the  following  points  would  cer- 
tainly be  included : 

1.  Believe  in  people.  Remind  yourself  that 
God  has  a  definite  and  important  work  for  every 
disciple  to  perform.  Recall  the  hesitating  and 
stumbling  way  in  which  you  did  the  first  real 
work  ever  entrusted  to  you.  Remember  that 
God's  chief  way  of  getting  things  done  is  through 
very  ordinary  folks.  Think  of  the  unlikely 
group  that  Christ  took  hold  of  and  developed  into 
apostles.  If  you  do  not  believe  in  the  big  possi- 
bilities in  ordinary  people,  your  leadership  will 
be  sadly  limited.  According  to  your  faith  in 
people  will  it  be  unto  you. 

2.  Let  people  know  that  you  believe  in  them. 

157 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

What  would  you  ever  have  become  without  the 
faith  in  you  that  other  people  have  shown?  What 
about  your  mother?  Has  she  not  always  be- 
lieved in  you  away  beyond  your  own  faith  in 
yourself?  God  trusts  us  with  infinitely  import- 
ant work.  If  we  act  for  Him  we  must  trust  men 
as  He  does. 

3.  Locate  definite  responsibility  upon  indi- 
viduals. Let  there  be  no  uncertainty  about 
just  what  is  expected.  Assignments  should  be 
specific  and  accepted  individually. 

4.  Have  a  definite  time  for  reports,  and  call 
for  them  in  detail.  It  is  only  the  most  mature 
leadership  that  can  do  its  best  work  without  the 
necessity  of  reporting  its  efforts  and  achieve- 
ments. 

e5.  Work  with  the  people  whom  you  are  try- 
ing to  develop.  To  see  you  do  the  thing  may  in- 
dicate to  them  what  no  amount  of  descriptive 
talk  could  do. 

6.  Pray  with  people  over  their  specific  tasks. 
Somehow  help  them  to  realize  that  Christ  is 
working  with  and  through  all  those  who  under- 
take the  doing  of  His  will.  The  highest  leader- 
ship is  that  which  is  absolutely  confident  of 
Christ's  indwelling  presence  and  outflowing 
energy.  Make  all  this  clear  from  Christ's 
promises,  and  let  those  whom  you  would  help 
realize  that  you  have  tested  these  promises  and 
found  them  to  be  utterly  trustworthy. 

7.  Keep    adding    larger    responsibilities    as 

158 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

they  can  be  carried,  always  expecting  a  little 
more  of  people  than  they  can  do  alone.  God  asks 
of  us  all  more  than  we  can  do.  We  are  respon- 
sible for  letting  Him  work  through  us  in  a  way 
that  reveals  divine  energies  in  operation  through 
human  channels. 

8.  Show  people  not  only  your  results  but 
your  processes.  They  want  to  know  how  you  go 
at  things.  Many  a  man  would  help  his  students 
more  by  giving  his  own  experience  than  by  filling 
their  minds  with  the  results  alone.  To  be  all  we 
are  capable  of  being  and  then  to  reproduce  our- 
selves, is  the  highest  kind  of  ministry.  This  is 
preeminently  what  Christ  did.  And  He  says  to 
us:  Be  examples.  Be  object  lessons.  Be  illus- 
trations of  what  I  can  do  in  a  human  life.  Be 
witnesses. 

9.  Keep  growing  yourself  and  expect  every- 
body else  to  keep  on  growing. 

The  glory  of  the  life  in  Christ  is  that  it  gets 
bigger  every  day.  We  can  never  comprehend  it, 
much  less  exhaust  it,  in  this  world,  no  matter 
how  fast  we  grow.  The  more  we  grow  the 
more  limitless  Christ  appears,  and  the  less  we 
seem  to  have  attained.  One  of  the  most  sug- 
gestive addresses  that  has  been  published  on 
Leadership  is  by  Dr.  Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  the 
present-day  apostle  to  the  Moslem  World,  en- 
titled *The  Price  of  Leadership."  The  following 
excerpts  are  made  from  this  address  as  they 
gather  up  so  suggestively  some  of  the  main  con- 

159 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

ditions  of  entering  into  our  priceless  heritage  in 
the  greatest  of  all  enterprises : 

"Missionary  leadership,  to  my  mind,  is  the 
one  solution  of  the  whole  missionary  problem. 
Not  money,  but  men;  not  statistics,  but  dy- 
namics; not  how  many  we  can  enlist,  but  how 
much  we  can  enlist  in  this  enterprise,  will  give  us 
the  victory. 

''Missionary  leadership  does  not  depend  upon 
geographical  location,  because  some  of  the 
greatest  missionary  leaders  today  have  never  left 
the  place  where  they  were  born,  and  some  of 
them  never  left  the  town  where  they  were 
brought  up. 

''Nor  does  missionary  leadership  depend  upon 
wealth  or  social  position  or  ecclesiastical  pres- 
tige. A  man  need  not  be  a  bishop  on  the  books  to 
be  a  bishop  in  missions.  Although  there  are  men 
who  are  considered  only  laymen,  we  have  had 
them  all  down  the  ages  that,  without  any  ecclesi- 
astical position  whatever,  were  head  and  shoul- 
ders above  all  the  men  of  their  generation  in  mis- 
sionary leadership.  Think  of  Carey,  the  cobbler; 
think  of  Raymond  Lull,  a  layman  in  the  days  of 
the  Popes,  when  men  swore  by  ecclesiastical  posi- 
tion ;  and  the  only  name  we  remember  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  is  not  the  name  of  a  Pope,  or  an 
inquisitor,  or  a  crusader,  but  of  that  lonely  lay- 
man, Raymond  Lull,  the  first  missionary  to  Mos- 
lems. 

"What,  then,  is  the  price  of  missionary  lead- 

160 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

ership?     I  think  the  price  of  missionary  leader- 
ship includes  seven  elements. 

VISION 

'The  first  price  of  missionary  leadership  is 
vision.  As  soon  as  you  see  something  that 
everybody  else  cannot  see  and  won't  see, 
then  God  is  baptizing  you  to  leadership 
in  that  thing.  Carey  saw  the  whole  world 
when  Sidney  Smith  only  saw  the  pavements  of 
London.  Henry  Martyn  saw  India  and  Persia 
and  Arabia  and  Barbary  and  North  Africa,  a 
vision  of  the  Moslem  world,  when  the  rest  of  the 
Church  was  blind. 

DECISION 

"But  vision  alone  only  makes  a  man  vision- 
ary, and  God  deliver  us  from  visionary  men  on 
missions!  After  vision  comes  decision.  Every 
one  of  those  great  heroes  in  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  Hebrews  was  a  man  of  decision.  They  saw,  and 
then  they  considered.  When  Moses  saw  the  burn- 
ing bush  he  did  not  write  poetry.  He  went  out 
and  led  God's  people  through  the  weary  wilder- 
ness. When  Abraham  saw  the  city  that  hath 
foundations  he  laid  the  foundations  for  God's 
church  right  there  in  his  own  household.  And  if 
you  and  I  catch  the  vision  of  the  missionary  pos- 
sibilities, then,  like  Carey,  we  must  put  that  vis- 
ion in  our  cobbler's  shop  and  start  to  realize  it. 
KNOWLEDGE 

''And  the  third  price  of  leadership  is  knowl- 
161 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

edge.  All  the  missionary  leaders  today  in  this 
country  have  risen  to  missionary  leadership  by 
the  fact  that  they  know.  The  greatest  foe  to 
business  leadership  is  superficiality.  A  man  who 
does  not  know  banking  will  never  be  a  banker. 
If  you  know  more  about  missions  than  your 
Board  secretary  does,  they  will  put  you  in  his 
place.  If  you  know  more  about  missions  than 
any  man  in  your  town  you  can  get  their  hearing. 
It  is  sheer  ignorance  on  the  part  of  a  lot  of  us 
that  deprives  us  of  missionary  leadership. 

PASSION 

"And  the  fourth  fact  in  missionary  leadership 
is  passion.  It  is  not  only  to  see,  it  is  not  only  to 
set  your  jaw  and  plant  your  foot  and  say,  *I  will 
do  it,'  it  is  not  only  to  know  the  road,  but  you 
have  got  to  put  on  some  speed.  The  leader  is 
the  one  who  keeps  ahead. 

If  you  want  to  make  people  follow  your  leader- 
ship you  must  actually  do  what  Christ  did,  have 
compassion  on  the  multitude.  The  pathos  of  the 
whole  thing  is  enough  to  keep  us  warm  on  the 
subject.  Think  of  John  Knox,  that  great  mis- 
sionary leader  of  Scotland.  They  say  he  used  to 
kneel  and  pray  in  his  little  room,  and  he  would 
call  out  to  God  and  say,  *0h,  God,  give  me  Scot- 
land or  I  die.'  Well,  God  gave  him  Scotland 
though  he  died,  and  John  Knox  has  got  Scotland 
today.  And  so  if  we  will  pray  in  that  fashion 
and  live  in  that  fashion,  with  the  passion  for  mis- 

162 


WHY  THE   BATTLE   HALTS 

sions,  we  will  be  leaders.  The  swiftest  ships  that 
cross  the  Atlantic  are  not  those  that  have  the 
finest  captains  or  the  finest  cabins ;  they  are  sim- 
ply those  ships  where  the  boilers  are  fed  with 
the  greatest  consumption  of  coal,  where  the  fires 
burn  fiercely.  And  that  man  will  keep  ahead 
who,  with  Henry  Martyn,  is  quietly  burning  out 
for  God. 

SACRIFICE 

''And  then  the  next  price  to  pay  for  missions 
is  not  only  knowledge  and  passion  but  sacrifice. 
That  is  where  the  leaders  particularly  fail,  self- 
sacrifice;  nothing  pulls  so  much  as  the  print  of 
the  nails  and  the  mark  of  the  spear.  We  foreign 
missionaries  can  get  our  native  helpers,  as  we 
call  them,  to  do  anything  that  we  will  do  first. 
You  can  get  your  church  to  give  anything  to 
missions  if  quietly,  unobtrusively,  you  have  done 
it  first. 

SELF-EFFACEMENT 

"And  then  a  price  to  pay  which  is  still  greater 
and  still  harder  to  pay  and  that  is  most  funda- 
mental, is  self-effacement.  The  thing  that 
guides  the  ship  is  the  oak  rudder  away 
down  below  the  water.  There  are  men  whose 
names  are  not  on  the  church  rolls  as  missionary 
leaders,  but  who  quietly  have  changed  the  poli- 
cies of  their  local  churches,  and  quietly  have 
changed  the  lines  of  missionary  activity  simply 
by  the  willingness  to  efface  themselves  as  long  as 

163 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

the  work  is  done.  A  man  who  seeks  prominence 
is  not  a  leader;  a  man  who  seeks  results  is  a 
leader.  A  demagogue  is  not  a  leader;  a  states- 
man is  a  leader.  Lincoln  was  a  leader,  the  most 
modest  president  we  ever  had.  And  so  you  can 
go  down  the  list  of  missionary  leaders  at  home 
and  abroad  and  you  will  find  that  those  men  are 
missionary  leaders  who  are  willing  to  efface 
themselves  for  the  sake  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
willing  to  suffer  anything  so  long  as  the  great 
cause  is  advanced,  who  do  not  count  personal 
plans  when  they  interfere  with  the  plans  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

LONELINESS 

"And  finally,  the  last  price  to  pay  is  the  hard- 
est, and  that  is  loneliness.  The  leader  is  the  one 
who  keeps  ahead.  Did  you  ever  see  men  run- 
ning a  race?  The  man  who  keeps  ahead  has  no 
encouragement.  All  he  has  is  the  weary  road. 
The  fellows  behind  him,  the  man  away  behind, 
try  to  catch  up  with  the  leader,  but  the  loneliest 
man  on  the  turf  is  the  man  who  runs  ahead  or 
alone.  The  loneliest  ship  on  the  Atlantic  is  the 
ship  that  sails  fastest.  And  the  loneliest  man 
in  your  denomination  tonight  is  the  man  who 
sees  the  vision  of  what  your  denomination  could 
do.  And  the  loneliest  missionary  in  Korea  or 
Japan  or  Arabia  is  the  man  who  sees  what  the 
others  cannot  see  yet.  But  the  price  of  leader- 
ship is  always  loneliness.     There  is  a  loneliness 

164 


WHY  THE   BATTLE  HALTS 

of  the  desert,  and  there  is  a  loneliness  of  the 
sea,  and  there  is  a  loneliness  of  a  great  city. 
But  there  is  no  loneliness  so  great  as  the  loneli- 
ness of  a  great  idea  that  nobody  else  has  caught 
and  only  you  can  see." 

I  have  quoted  thus  extensively  from  Dr. 
Zwemer  for  two  reasons.  First,  he  says  the 
thing  in  the  briefest,  strongest  way,  I  have  found 
it  said  in  print;  and  second,  he  illustrates  in  his 
personality  to  a  remarkable  degree,  the  very  ele- 
ments of  leadership  that  he  describes. 

President  Garfield  said:  'To  a  young  man 
who  has  in  himself  the  magnificent  possibilities 
of  life,  it  is  not  fitting  that  he  should  be  per- 
manently commanded;  he  should  be  a  command- 
er. You  must  not  continue  to  be  employed;  you 
must  be  an  employer." 

''You  don't  know  what  you  can  do  until  you 
try,"  said  David  Livingstone. 

"Attempt  great  things  for  God,"  said  William 
Carey. 

"One  thing  makes  the  years  its  pedestal. 

Springs  from  the  ashes  of  its  pyre,  and  claps 

A  skyward  wing  above  its  epitaph — 

The   will   of  man   willing  immortal   things. 

The  ages  are  but  baubles  hung  upon 

The   thread   of   some   strong  lives — and   one   slight   wrist 

May  lift  a  century  above  the  dust." 


165 


Personal    Service,    the    Only    Adequate    Re- 
sponse to  the  World's  Need 

The  divine  method  of  revealing  truth  and 
propagating  it  is  by  its  incarnation  in  human 
life.  God  never  was  understood  until  He  was 
manifest  in  the  flesh. 

"And  the  Word  became  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  glory  as  of 
the  only  begotten  from  the  Father) ,  full  of  grace 
and  truth."     John  1:14. 

The  work  of  revealing  God  is  still  done  chief- 
ly through  the  indwelling  of  Christ  in  the  life 
of  his  disciples.  "As  the  Father  hath  sent  me 
into  the  world  even  so  send  I  you,"  was  Christ's 
description  of  our  mission.  "If  anyone  would 
knock  at  the  door  of  my  breast,"  said  Luther, 
"and  say.  Who  lives  here?  I  would  not  reply 
Martin  Luther,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

"I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ;  and  it  is 
no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me," 
was  Paul's  explanation  of  ,  his  Christian  life. 
That  this  experience  of  the  indwelling  Christ  is 
no  mere  figure  of  speech,  but  a  tremendous  re- 
ality, is  made  convincingly  clear  in  Christ's  own 
promise:  "If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my 
word;  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will 
come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with  him." 
John  14:23. 

166 


PERSONAL   SERVICE 

The  exclamation  of  Helen  Keller  is  but  the 
echo  of  the  surprise  we  must  all  have  felt:  ''I 
often  wonder  how  God  can  silence  keep,  while 
sin  keeps  stalking  through  his  house  of  timie." 
There  is  no  greater  occasion  of  wonder  than  this 
in. the  world.  And  yet  is  the  explanation  not  to 
be  found  in  this  self-imposed  limitation  of  God, 
that  he  must  be  reincarnated  in  some  human 
life  in  order  to  be  revealed  to  men  and  to  accom- 
plish his  will  of  destroying  sin? 

Disciples  are  essentially  simply  human  trans- 
mitters of  the  divine  truth  and  life.  There  is  a 
Marconi  wireless  station  at  New  Brunswick,  N. 
J.,  one  of  a  chain  of  stations  that  is  planned 
ultimately  to  reach  around  the  globe.  The  elec- 
tric power  to  operate  this  great  plant  passes 
through  two  small  cables  not  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  This  enormous 
energy  does  not  require  any  very  pretentious 
means  of  transmission.  All  it  needs  is  a  suitable 
medium,  together  with  perfect  insulation,  and 
perfect  contact  with  the  source  of  power.  Men 
and  women  are  the  chosen  medium  for  the  trans- 
mission of  God's  truth  and  life  into  this  world. 
They  also  need  to  fulfill  these  two  conditions  of 
perfect  insulation  from  the  sinful  world,  and 
perfect  contact  with  their  source  of  power.  But 
under  these  simple  conditions,  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  amount  of  spiritual  dynamic  they  may 
transmit. 

Some  one  sums  up  the  whole  Christian  life 

167 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

in  four  words:  Admit,  Submit,  Commit,  Trans- 
mit. Admit  Christ,  Submit  to  His  will,  Commit 
your  life  to  Him,  Transmit  His  life  to  others. 

The  reason  wh}^  the  Kngdom  of  God  does  not 
come  with  power  in  the  world  is  that  the  trans- 
mitters are  not  working  well.  There  is  power 
enough.  God  has  not  failed.  The  cross  is  suf- 
ficient. The  love  of  God  is  infinite  and  includes 
all  His  creatures.  Not  one  word  has  failed  of  His 
promises.  The  whole  difficulty  is  with  the  trans- 
mitters. 

Somehow  the  life  of  God  is  impeded  in  the 
human  channels  through  which  He  means  it 
freely  to  flow.  An  old  illustration  has  helped  to 
make  this  vivid  to  my  own  consciousness.  If 
there  were  only  one  Christian  in  the  world  now, 
and  he  were  to  win  one  other  within  a  year  and 
these  two  were  each  to  win  one  other  during  the 
next  year,  and  this  process  were  .continued,  every 
convert  adding  only  one  other  each  year,  the 
whole  world  would  be  Christian  in  less  than 
thirty  years!  Why  then  has  it  taken  the  church 
nineteen  centuries  to  carry  out  Christ's  commis- 
sion to  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations?  There 
can  only  be  one  explanation.  The  church  has  not 
been  doing  its  divinely-appointed  work.  And  it 
is  not  doing  it  now.  It  is  only  the  exceptional 
church  member  who  is  even  trying  to  win  others 
to  a  vital  faith  in  Christ.  In  some  way  this  must 
all  be  changed,  and  disciples  generally  must  be- 
come witnesses  and  workers. 

168 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

Christ  is  not  going  to  change  his  plan.  At 
the  first  he  said,  "Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  to  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  This  is  a  prophecy 
as  well  as  a  commission.  In  another  significant 
passage  he  said,  "This  gospel  of  the  Kingdom 
shall  be  preached  throughout  all  the  world."  The 
work  is  going  to  be  done,  and  it  is  going  to  be 
done  by  willing  human  agents.  The  fulfilment  of 
the  program  of  Christ  and  the  redemption  of  the 
world  alike  await  the  consecration  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  to  personal  Christian  service. 
No  human  intuition  or  calculation  can  estimate 
how  speedily  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  would  come 
everywhere  if  the  members  of  the  church  made 
this  work  actually  their  first  business.  There 
would  be  a  continuous  revival  in  every  church 
until  all  the  people  within  its  reach  had  been 
evangelized,  and  then  its  workers  and  its  wealth 
and  its  prayers  would  be  poured  out  unstintedly 
to  secure  a  similar  result  in  every  other  commu- 
nity in  the  world.  This  would  be  real  Chris- 
tianity. And  all  that  is  needed  to  bring  it  about 
is  to  clean  up  and  insulate  the  transmitters  and 
keep  them  in  contact  with  the  central  power 
house. 

Let  us  think  also  of  the  powerful  reaction  of 
personal  service  upon  character,  upon  estimates 
of  value,  upon  habits  of  prayer,  upon  depth  of 
spiritual  conviction. 

No  one  can  go  far  in  attempting  to  reveal 
Christ  to  others  without  feeling  afresh  the  need 

169 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

of  Christ  in  the  santification  of  his  own  life. 
For  character  is  not  only  or  chiefly  taught;  it  is 
caught.  'The  depth  from  which  our  words  are 
spoken  is  the  measure  of  the  depth  at  which 
they  will  be  heard."  The  value  of  our  work 
for  God  depends  on  the  degree  of  our  intimacy 
with  Him  at  the  time  we  do  it.  Emerson's  state- 
ment is  too  often  literally  true:  ''What  you  are 
speaks  so  loud  that  I  cannot  hear  what  you  say." 

Unless  a  person  is  a  message  he  cannot  speak 
a  message  of  any  power.  One  of  the  best  meth- 
ods therefore  of  saving  one's  self  is  to  give  one's 
self  unreservedly  to  the  helping  and  saving  of 
others.  Many  a  man  has  been  greatly  helped  in 
his  own  fight  with  temptation  by  the  knowledge 
that  compromise  means  spiritual  impotence. 
There  is  no  other  way  in  which  the  highest  char- 
acter can  be  so  speedily  and  surely  developed  as 
to  abandon  one's  self  to  a  life  of  personal  service. 

How  quickly  one's  standards  of  value  are  re- 
adjusted and  corrected  by  actual  experience  in 
saving  the  lost!  No  longer  is  it  possible  then  to 
think  of  material  possessions  as  worthy  of  one's 
first  thought  and  effort.  Selfish  ambition  is  dis- 
solved in  the  love  that  goes  out,  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  one's  life 
for  the  rescue  of  others.  Worldly  pleasures  that 
seemed  irresistible  in  their  fascination  not  only 
lose  their  glamour,  but  many  of  them  become 
silly  and  repulsive  in  the  presence  of  the  joy  of 
winning    even    one  priceless  life  for  Christ  and 

170 


PERSONAL   SERVICE 

righteousness.  The  business  that  seemed  so  com- 
pelling yesterday  is  in  its  proper  place  of  sub- 
ordination today.  The  money  I  spent  lavishly 
for  personal  pleasure  or  luxury  yesterday,  I  am 
studiously  saving  today  to  use  in  hastening  the 
Kingdom  of  my  Lord.  Nothing  can  take  the 
place  of  actual  personal  witnessing  and  service 
in  helping  a  person  thus  to  see  truth  whole.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  entire  financial  problem  of 
the  Church  would  be  solved  instantly,  if  Chris- 
tians generally  ''first  gave  their  own  selves  to  the 
Lord"  and  to  His  service  in  a  personal  way. 

The  direct  effect  of  service  on  personal 
habits  of  prayer  is  equally  striking.  It  is  when 
one  gets  into  active  co-operation  with  God  that 
he  feels  the  need  of  God  as  never  before.  If  you 
want  to  be  driven  to  prayer,  undertake  some 
serious  spiritual  service.  And  the  doubt  and 
hesitation  and  questioning  of  men  would  soon 
give  place  to  overwhelming  conviction  and  spirit- 
ual certainty,  in  the  presence  of  the  actual  mira- 
cles that  are  still  wrought  in  the  transformation 
of  human  lives  by  the  divine  Christ.  The  men 
who  are  spending  their  time  raising  doubts  about 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  divinity 
of  Christ  are  not  the  men  who  are  leading  men 
out  of  bondage  into  liberty.  ''By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them." 

Another  powerful  motive  to  urge  as  an  in- 
spiration to  Christians  to  give  themselves  to  seri- 
ous, personal  effort  for  others,  is  that  we  thus 

171 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

come  into  most  vital  fellowship  and  con- 
scious co-operation  with  God  himself. 
**My  Father  woketh  hitherto,  and  I  work," 
expressed  Christ's  sense  of  oneness  with  His 
Father  in  ceaseless  activity.  Through  the  gen- 
erations God  has  been  at  work  leading  mankind 
back  into  knowledge  of  Himself  and  into  person- 
al reproduction  of  his  own  life  of  holiness.  Every- 
one who  gives  his  life  to  this  great  end  becomes 
a  constructive  worker  with  God  in  his  unfolding 
plan  of  redemption  for  the  world.  And  no  one 
can  in  any  large  measure  become  a  ''partaker  of 
the  divine  nature"  without  of  necessity  letting 
that  nature  express  itself  by  becoming  an  active 
partner  in  the  divine  program.  There  is  bound 
to  be  an  absolute  relation  between  our  living  the 
life  of  God  and  our  doing  the  work  of  God. 

All  of  God's  work  is  universal  in  its  bearings. 
His  field  is  the  world.  And  he  cannot  confine 
Himself  to  a  part  of  the  field.  Nor  can  man 
if  he  partakes  with  any  fullness  of  the 
divine  nature.  "No  man  discovers  himself 
imtil  he  identifies  himself  with  universal 
ends."  The  work  that  I  do  today  is  meant 
to  have  its  bearings  on  all  the  world  and 
on  all  the  future.  No  longer  can  life's  work  be 
humdrum  or  commonplace.  "They  that  turn  the 
world  upside  down  have  come  hither  also."  It 
would  have  been  a  great  thing  to  be  with  God 
and  to  work  with  Him  when  He  was  creating  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.    Is  it  not  an  even  greater 

172 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

privilege  to  be  with  Him  and  to  work  with  Him 
now  in  the  creation  of  the  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness?  And 
this  is  not  only  the  privilege  but  the  urgent  call 
and  duty  of  every  disciple  of  Christ. 

Those  who  build  with  God  are  securing  abid- 
ing and  eternal  results  of  their  labor.  The  deep- 
est needs  in  the  world  are  spiritual  needs.  The 
most  powerful  forces  in  the  world  are  spiritual 
forces.  The  only  permanent  values  i^i  the  world 
are  spiritual  values.  Every  one  is  facing  in- 
evitable and  eternal  bankruptcy  except  as  he  in- 
vests his  life  and  his  treasure  in  something  that 
is  spiritual.  We  brought  nothing  into  this  world 
and  it  is  certain  we  shall  carry  nothing  out  in  the 
the  way  of  material  treasure.  The  only  things  we 
can  take  with  us  as  an  eternal  possession  will  be 
our  own  characters  and  the  lives  of  others  made 
better  by  our  touch.  How  utterly  reasonable 
and  fundamental  then  is  the  teaching  of  our 
Lord:  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on 
earth,  where  moth  and  rust  consume,  and  where 
thieves  break  through  and  steal,  but  lay  up  for 
yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,  where  neither 
moth  nor  rust  doth  consume,  and  where  thieves 
do  not  break  through  nor  steal:  for  where  thy 
treasure  is  there  will  thy  heart  be  also."  Matt. 
6:19-21. 

William  W.  Borden  had  nearly  a  million 
dollars  left  to  him,  and  he  had  it  in  his  own 
absolute  right  while  still  a  student  at  Yale.    For- 

173 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

tunately  he  had  discovered  the  blessedness  of 
giving  himself  to  Christ  in  personal  service  of 
others.  And  this  restrained  him  from  any  os- 
tentatious or  extravagant  use  of  his  wealth.  He 
gave  largely  to  the  support  of  a  rescue  mission  in 
New  Haven,  and  better  than  his  gifts  of  money 
was  his  more  expensive  gift  of  time  and  life  to 
the  winning  and  saving  of  enslaved  men. 

When  a  student  in  Princeton  Seminary,  he 
was  asked  by  a  fellow-student  one  day  why  he 
did  not  get  a  touring  car,  when  he  could  so  well 
afford  it.  Borden's  stern  reply  was:  ''Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan."  It  was  not  the  first  time  the 
devil  had  tried  to  get  this  young  man  to  follow 
the  popular  drift  in  self-indulgence  and  extrava- 
gance. A  little  later  he  went  on  to  say,  ''How  can 
I  allow  myself  this  unnecessary  luxury,  when  the 
money  it  would  cost  would  build  a  hospital  in 
China?" 

With  such  rigid  self-control  he  went  on  to  the 
very  end  of  his  life,  with  the  purpose  of  invest- 
ing himself  and  his  fortune  in  the  evangelization 
of  the  Moslems  in  China.  And  when  he  was  sud- 
denly called  to  higher  service  while  completing 
his  preparation  in  Cairo,  he  had  already  made 
his  will,  leaving  his  entire  earthly  possessions  to 
continue  the  work  to  which  with  such  fidelity  he 
had  devoted  his  life. 

Did  he  make  a  mistake?  Does  he  regret  now 
what  he  did  here?  Or  are  ten  thousand  others 
making  the  mistake  who  have  equal  opportunity 

174 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

but  who  are  wasting  their  wealth  in  pleasure 
and  luxury? 

Any  argument  for  doing  anything  at  all  to 
extend  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is  an  argument 
for  doing  all  of  which  one  is  capable.  Mackay 
of  Uganda  did  not  overstate  the  case  when  he 
said,  ''If  Christianity  is  worth  anything  it  is 
worth  everything.  If  it  calls  for  any  measure  of 
warmth  and  zeal,  it  will  justify  the  utmost  de- 
grees of  these.  There  is  no  consistent  medium 
between  reckless  atheism  on  the  one  side  and  the 
intensest  warmth  of  religious  life  and  effort  on 
the  other."  The  trouble  is  that  men  do  not  take 
seriously  Christ's  call  to  co-operate  with  Him. 
They  act  as  if  the  main  issue  of  life  were  busi- 
ness or  politics  or  personal  pleasure.  There  is 
not  the  slightest  ground  for  such  a  conclusion 
from  the  teachings  of  our  Lord. 

"If  any  man  serve  me,  let  him  follow  me." 

"Come  ye  after  me,  and  I  will  make  ye  fish- 
ers of  men." 

"He  that  abideth  in  me,  the  same  beareth 
much  fruit." 

"Whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  renounceth  not 
all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple." 

"Whosoever  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and 
whosoever  loseth  his  life  for  my  sake  and  the 
gospel's,  the  same  shall  save  it." 

The  peculiar  significance  of  the  missionary 
appeal  in  this  connection  is  that  it  constitutes 
the  supreme  challenge  to  personal  service,  inas- 

175 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

much  as  it  includes  all  the  unfinished  work  of 
God  in  the  world.  Those  Christian  leaders  are 
employing  only  the  simplest  strategy  of  the  situ- 
ation by  using  the  compelling  force  of  the  entire 
world's  need  as  an  appeal  to  every  individual 
Christian  to  give  himself  without  reserve  to  the 
completion  of  this  great  world-enterprise.  The 
biggest  thing  in  the  world  is  the  world.  If  the 
appeal  of  the  whole  world's  need  is  not  sufficient 
to  arouse  and  enlist  the  service  of  men,  what  les- 
ser appeal  is  likely  to  be  adequate?  The  possible 
forms  of  personal  service  are  so  many  and  so 
varied  as  almost  to  make  classification  or  de- 
tailed description  impossible.  Only  to  the  eyes 
opened  by  Christ's  compassion  to  the  human 
needs  that  touch  us  on  every  hand  will  these  op- 
portunities be  fully  seen  or  appreciated. 

1.  First  in  importance  are  to  be  mentioned 
the  people  with  whom  we  are  thrown  naturally 
into  contact,  those  in  our  homes,  our  neighbors, 
those  in  our  places  of  business,  those  whom  we 
meet  in  social  or  professional  life,  those  whom  we 
meet  in  travel.  How  many  of  these  have  unmet 
spiritual  needs  to  which  we  may  minister? 
How  many  of  them  are  living  at  peace 
with  God,  in  victory  over  temptation, 
and  in  harmony  with  God's  plan  for 
their  life?  It  is  ours  to  live  with  our  hearts 
alert  to  all  these  needs,  and  our  wills  responsive 
to  any  opportunity  that  may  open  to  minister 
to  them.     More  than  this.    It  is  ours  to  seek  the 

176 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

opportunity  of  helpfulness  and  not  always  wait 
for  it  till  it  comes  of  itself.  Christ  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.  He  went  about 
doing  good.  He  made  doing  good  his  habitual 
business.  And  no  one  who  does  this  will  need  to 
go  very  far  to  find  someone  who  needs  help. 

2.  The  second  natural  field  of  spiritual  oppor- 
tunity is  in  connection  with  one's  own  church. 
A  prayerful  study  of  the  ways  in  which  one  can 
be  of  the  largest  service  through  this  agency  will 
doubtless  reveal  much  that  waits  on  willing 
hands  and  hearts.  Are  all  the  members  of  my 
church  at  work  for  God?  Is  the  Church  really 
reaching  and  winning  the  people  of  the  commu- 
nity? What  needs  to  be  done  to  make  the  church 
fulfil  its  mission  more  perfectly  to  the  commu- 
nity and  to  the  world?  How  can  I  take  hold  to 
help  it  realize  these  possibilities? 

I  have  heard  of  a  church  which  year  after 
year  made  a  report  something  life  this: 

"Given  to  Home  Missions,  nothing. 

"Given  to  Foreign  Missions,  nothing. 

"Added  to  the  Church  on  confession  of  their 
faith,  not  any. 

"But"  thank  God  we're  about  holding  our 
own !" 

In  the  name  of  all  that  is  vital  in  religion, 
how  long  will  it  take  a  church  to  win  the  world 
that  is  satisfied  with  "about  holding  its  own?" 

3.  I  am  a  member  of  a  community.  My 
spiritual    influence    ought  to   reach  out  and  be 

177 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

helpful  to  all  the  churches  and  to  the  interde- 
nominational work  that  may  be  going  on.  Has 
my  church  some  experience  that  might  be  of 
value  to  the  neighboring  churches?  We  are  all 
engaged  in  the  work  of  Christ.  Our  work  will 
be  more  effective  if  it  is  sympathetic,  correlated, 
co-operative.  If  the  world  is  my  field,  I  am  in- 
terested in  the  highest  efficiency  of  every  Chris- 
tian agency  that  is  cultivating  that  field.  I  am 
not  thinking  primarily  about  building  up  any  one 
church  or  denomination,  but  about  building  up 
Christ's  universal  Kingdom.  If  it  would  help 
along  that  Kingdom  as  a  whole  for  my  church 
to  be  absorbed  into  some  other  church,  I  will  be 
ready  to  yield  mere  sentimental  objections  to 
such  an  adjustment  My  zeal  is  for  Christ  and 
his  cause,  not  for  any  particular  human  agency 
that  may  be  co-operating. 

In  the  war  against  sin  in  the  world  all  the 
churches  are  or  ought  to  be  real  allies.  It  would 
not  be  more  insane  in  the  European  war  for  the 
Allies  to  ignore  or  hamper  or  compete  with  each 
other,  than  for  the  churches  to  act  in  such  a 
spirit. 

4.  I  belong  to  a  denomination  or  communion. 
This  is  only  one  of  the  regiments  in  Christ's 
army.  What  can  I  do  to  make  my  whole  regi- 
ment more  efficient?  Can  I  help  in  the  setting 
up  of  higher  standards?  Is  the  emphasis  right 
in  my  communion?  Is  the  main  drive  for  the 
whole  Kingdom  or  is  some  smaller  horizon  limit- 
ing the  view?  lyg 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

Is  my  Church  doing  its  part  to  save  America? 
Is  it  taking  its  share  of  burden  for  the  rest  of  the 
world?  When  we  get  together  in  our  official 
church  meetings,  is  the  dominant  issue  the  com- 
pletion of  Christ's  world-program? 

5.  I  belong  to  certain  Christian  organiza- 
tions within  the  church,  such  as  the  Sabbath 
School,  the  Adult  Bible  Class,  the  Young  People's 
Society,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Are  all  these  organizations  with  which  I  am  con- 
nected possessed  with  the  spirit  of  complete  loy- 
alty and  obedience  to  Christ?  What  can  I  do  to 
bring  them  up  to  this  point? 

6.  I  belong  to  a  Christian  nation.  What  is 
my  nation's  mission  to  the  world?  Is  that  mis- 
sion being  fulfilled?  How  can  I  influence  public 
opinion  so  that  its  mission  may  be  more  com- 
pletely accomplished?  How  can  I  help  to  Chris- 
tianize the  whole  life  of  my  own  country,  both 
for  its  own  sake,  and  for  its  influence  on  the 
world  ? 

7.  I  belong  to  the  Church  universal.  How 
can  I  make  the  churches  of  other  nations  strong- 
er? What  points  of  contact  have  I  that  can  be 
used  to  inject  new  life  and  spiritual  power  into 
the  churches  of  Europe,  of  Asia,  of  Africa,  of 
South  America?  What  dangerous  tendencies  are 
there  in  the  life  of  the  various  churches  of  the 
world  today?  And  how  may  I  best  help  to 
change  these  tendencies? 

In  short,  what  most  need  to  be  done  in  the 

179 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

world,  and  where  can  I  take  hold  to  get  it  done? 

This  is  no  fancy  picture  of  the  opportunity 
of  personal  service  open  to  every  Christian.  The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  an  absolute  democracy.  God 
is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Anyone  anywhere 
with  anything  to  give,  may  give  it  to  the  whole 
world  if  he  will. 

We  are  workers  together  with  God.  We  are 
sharers  in  all  that  God  is  trying  to  get  done. 
There  is  no  limitation  upon  our  prayers  or  our 
service  except  what  we  impose  upon  them  our- 
selves. 

There  are  four  questions  which  I  have  been 
asking  of  my  own  heart  in  the  recent  months.  I 
am  persuaded  that  they  are  fair  questions  and 
that  they  strike  at  the  root  of  our  problems. 

1.  How  long  would  it  take  to  make  my  com- 
munity really  Christian,  if  every  other  follower 
of  Christ  worked  at  it  and  prayed  about  it  just 
as  I  do? 

2.  How  long  would  it  take  to  make  my  whole 
nation  really  Christian,  if  all  Christians  gave 
their  prayers  and  efforts  and  money  toward  it 
just  as  I  am  doing? 

3.  How  long  would  it  take  to  plant  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  every  community  in  the 
world  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  if 
all  other  Christians  were  to  give  this  great  pro- 
gram of  Christ  the  place  in  their  lives  that  it  has 
in  mine? 

4.  And  the  fourth  question  may  cut  deeper 

180 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

still.  Have  I  any  moral  right  to  expect  or  de- 
mand of  any  other  Christian,  even  of  preachers 
and  missionaries,  any  service  or  sacrifice  for 
Christ  that  I  am  unwilling  to  give  myself? 

It  seems  to  me  that  any  Christian  who 
asks  or  demands  of  any  other  Christian  any  serv- 
ice or  sacrifice  which  he  is  not  willing  to  share 
must  be  either  a  coward  or  a  hypocrite. 

The  work  of  winning  the  world  to  Christ  is 
my  work,  as  really  and  as  fully,  as  it  is  the  work 
of  anyone  else.  Let  me  not  avoid  it  or  shirk  it 
in  any  way. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  where  I  live  or  what  my 
profession  is  that  determines  the  quality  of  my 
life ;  it  is  my  central  and  controlling  life-purpose. 
And  that  can  be  right,  no  matter  where  I  live  or 
what  I  work  at  to  pay  expenses. 

There  is  one  other  reward  of  personal  spirit- 
ual service  that  is  of  great  value.  Only  as  we  work 
for  God,  do  we  become  actually  conscious  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  dwelling  in  us  and  doing  His 
Vv^ork.  He  was  promised  at  the  beginning  to 
equip  Christians  for  witnessing.  It  is  as  they 
actually  witness  that  His  power  is  felt  and  re- 
vealed. The  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  accepted 
by  faith.  But  the  work  of  the  Spirit  if  unhin- 
dered, will  soon  produce  fruit  that  can  be  seen. 

The  possibilities  of  wide-reaching  usefulness 
are  so  great,  for  laymen,  as  well  as  for  ministers, 
that  if  we  only  had  the  faith  to  see  them  in  ad- 
vance, it  would  seem  that    our    utmost    interest 

181 


MISSIONS   AND    LEADERSHIP 

and  enthusiasm  would  be  enlisted.  Perhaps  I 
cannot  better  help  to  indicate  some  of  these  pos- 
sibilities than  by  brief  sketches  of  some  of  the 
devoted  Christian  laymen  whom  it  has  been  my 
privilege  to  know  in  a  rather  intimate  way. 
Three  of  the  men  whom  I  will  mention  have  al- 
ready gone  to  their  eternal  reward,  but  at  least 
one  is  still  in  the  midst  of  the  fight  here. 

During  ten  years  of  service  in  Calcutta,  In- 
dia, I  was  intimately  associated  with  Mr.  Kali 
Charan  Banurji.  He  was  born  a  Kulin  Brah- 
min, the  highest  among  the  high,  in  his  social 
standing.  One  of  the  privileges  of  this  class  of 
Brahmins  is  that  they  are  allowed  to  have  a  wife 
in  each  village  that  they  visit  in  their  priestly 
work.  In  the  exercise  of  this  prerogative,  the 
grandfather  of  my  friend  had  sixty  wives. 

In  the  good  providence  of  God  young  Mr.  Ba- 
nurji was  sent  to  the  Scotch  college  in  Calcutta 
for  his  education,  while  Dr.  Alexander  Duff  was 
at  its  head.  The  student  found  before  he  left 
college  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom,  and  that  the  eternal  God  is  revealed 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  Though  he  was  vio- 
lently opposed  by  his  family  and  friends,  he  open- 
ly confessed  Christ  in  baptism.  When  I  met 
him — years  later,  he  was  a  practicing  lawyer  of 
the  highest  standing,  and  an  honored  lecturer  on 
law  in  some  of  the  leading  colleges  of  Calcutta. 
But  his  heavy  regular  work  was  not  allowed  to 
prevent  him  from   doing   all   sorts  of  Christian 

182 


PERSONAL   SERVICE 

work.  He  was  President  of  the  Student  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  Calcutta  and 
gave  unstintedly  of  his  time  to  the  work  at  the 
student  building.  He  was  the  recognized  leader 
in  the  open  air  evangelistic  work  at  Beadon 
Square,  Calcutta,  for  many  years.  No  man  was 
more  in  demand  for  religious  addresses  of  every 
sort.  He  was  much  of  the  time  leading  one  or 
more  Bible  Classes  each  week.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  chief  leaders  in  the  Indian  National  Con- 
gress. So  deeply  was  he  respected  by  Hindus 
and  Moslems  as  well  as  by  Christians,  that  he 
was  selected  to  the  high  honor  of  Registrar  of 
Calcutta  University  by  the  votes  of  these  men. 
His  public  services  to  the  community  and  the  na- 
tion were  so  conspicuous  that  a  prominent  Hindu 
gentleman  on  his  death,  left  a  substantial  an- 
nuity to  Mr.  Banurji  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  On 
one  great  occasion  when  the  whole  community 
was  doing  him  special  honor,  Hindus  and  Mos- 
lems being  the  great  majority  of  all  the  vast 
assembly  present,  he  brought  the  whole  meeting 
up  to  a  magnificent  climax  by  saying  in  his  re- 
sponse to  all  the  praise  that  had  been  heaped 
upon  him,  ''If  any  of  these  kind  things  are  true 
that  you  have  been  saying  about  me, — I  owe  it 
all  to  Jesus  Christ." 

Though  he  came  straight  out  of  heathenism, 
he  became  one  of  the  rarest  Christian  characters 
that  it  has  ever  been  my  privilege  to  meet. 
Though  he  was  a    self-supporting    layman,    he 

183 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

probably  did  more  to  promote  the  Kingdom  of 
God  in  Calcutta  than  any  one  of  us  who  were 
there  as  foreign  missionaries.  Though  he  has 
now  been  received  into  glory,  his  testimony  and 
his  influence  abide  in  power  among  multitudes  of 
people  throughout  India. 

In  the  year  1906  there  was  a  young  business 
man  in  the  city  of  Washington  who  had  been  de- 
veloped in  connection  with  the  Christian  Endeav- 
or Society  and  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation to  a  point  where  the  vision  of  the  world's 
need  had  taken  deep  hold  of  him  and  he  was 
looking  about  to  discover  how  he  could  help  to 
meet  it.  He  was  only  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
did  not  have  the  advantages  of  a  college  educa- 
tion, had  neither  wealth  nor  social  prestige,  but 
he  was  deeply  in  earnest  and  had  the  faith  and 
courage  to  find  a  way  or  make  a  way  to  put 
through  any  plan  that  he  believed  the  Lord  want- 
ed undertaken.  He  kept  his  eye  out  for  signs 
of  God's  moving  and  tried  to  be  responsive  to 
spiritual  calls  and  opportunities. 

He  was  deeply  impressed  by  a  great  conven- 
tion of  more  than  1000  men  of  the  United  Pres- 
byterian Church  held  in  Pittsburgh  in  1905. 
This  was  probably  the  first  of  the  big  modern 
missionary  conventions  of  men.  It  proved  to 
him  that  large  numbers  of  laymen  could  be  deep- 
ly moved  by  the  missionary  situation  and  ap- 
peal. With  this  at  work  in  his  mind,  he  at- 
tended the  International  Student  Volunteer  con- 

184 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

vention  held  in  Nashville  in  February,  1906. 
When  he  saw  that  great  company  of  some  thou- 
sands of  students  from  all  over  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  sitting  through  four  days  of  intense 
consideration  of  the  world-situation,  and  their 
personal  relation  to  it,  he  had  an  inspiration, 
or  vision.  He  said  to  himself,  if  the  serious 
Christian  laymen  of  America  could  see  the 
world  as  these  students  are  seeing  it,  they  would 
gladly  furnish  the  funds  and  the  prayer  to  back 
this  magnificent  young  life  in  the  great  enter- 
prise looking  toward  healing  the  hurt  of  the 
whole  race.  And  there  in  this  one  man's  soul  the 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  was  born,  that 
within  ten  years  has  spread  its  influence  over 
the  world. 

As  yet  no  one  knew  about  it  but  himself. 
But  he  returned  to  Washington  and  consulted 
his  warm  friend,  S.  W.  Woodward,  who  shared 
with  him  the  conviction  that  something  must  be 
done.  The  next  step  was  a  trip  to  New  York 
and  Boston  to  consult  other  trusted  advisers.  In 
November  of  that  year  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  was  to  cele- 
brate their  Centennial.  The  Chairman  of  that 
Board,  Mr.  Samuel  B.-  Capen,  warmly  welcomed 
the  proposal  to  do  something  to  enlist  laymen 
more  fully  and  deeply  in  missions.  And  so  it 
came  about  very  naturally  that  at  the  celebration 
of  the  Board  held  in  New  York,  one  special  ses- 
sion was  given  up  to  a  discussion  of  Laymen  and 

185 


MISSIONS   AND   LEADERSHIP 

Missions.  It  was  also  arranged  that  in  con- 
nection with  this  series  of  meetings  there  should 
be  one  session  to  which  selected  laymen  from 
all  the  communions  would  be  invited.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem,  it  was  announced  as  a  meeting  for 
prayer  over  the  missionary  situation,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  informal  conference.  The  meeting 
was  on  the  afternoon  and  evening  of  Nov.  15, 
1906,  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 
New  York.  The  day  was  very  wet  and  stormy, 
and  only  about  seventy-five  men  were  present, 
of  whom  only  one  was  a  minister,  the  assistant 
pastor  of  the  church  where  the  meeting  was 
held. 

There  was  only  one  address  given  on  this 
eventful  day.  Much  of  the  afternoon  was  spent 
in  prayer.  This  was  followed  by  conference  on 
what  ought  to  be  done  to  enlist  the  laymen  of  the 
Church  to  take  their  proper  part  in  the  world- 
wide propagation  of  Christianity.  Before  the 
evening  meeting  closed  a  series  of  resolutions 
was  adopted,  calling  into  existence  the  Laymen's 
Missionary  Movement,  and  appointing  the  nu- 
cleus of  the  Executive  Committee. 

It  was  only  during  its  wonderful  opening 
years  that  John  B.  Sleman,  Jr.,  remained  on 
earth  to  share  in  the  development  of  this  provi- 
dential movement,  for  he  was  called  home  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-seven.  But  he  lived  to  see 
his  vision  fulfilled  in  the  beginnings  at  least  of 
the   modern   uprising   of  laymen   for   world-con- 

186 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

quest.  He  had  accomplished  far  more  at  the 
age  of  thirty-seven  than  most  men  do  who  live 
twice  as  long.  And  the  influence  of  his  work 
will  go  on  forever. 

Only  second  in  vital  importance  to  Mr.  Sle- 
man  in  the  organization  of  the  Laymen's  Mis- 
sionary Movement,  was  Mr.  Samuel  B.  Capen, 
of  Boston,  to  whom  reference  has  already  been 
made.  He  was  a  carpet  merchant  for  paying 
expenses,  but  no  one  could  come  into  real  contact 
with  him  without  feeling  that  the  real  business 
of  his  life  was  building  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In 
years  when  active  Chrstian  laymen  were  scarce, 
he  stood  out  as  one  among  a  million  in  his  tire- 
less devotion  to  the  work  of  the  Church.  And 
he  was  one  of  the  very  first  to  see  the  necessity 
for  a  great  awakening  among  laymen  as  an  es- 
sential condition  of  the  Church  going  forward  in 
any  adequate  way. 

He  was  made  Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Laymen's  Movement  when  it 
was  first  organized,  as  the  man  preeminently  fit- 
ted for  the  position.  Though  he  lived  in  Boston, 
he  never  missed  one  of  the  monthly  meetings  of 
the  committee  in  New  York,  unless  through  ill- 
ness. He  left  his  business  for  several  weeks  dur- 
ing the  National  Missionary  Campaign  of  1909- 
10,  in  order  to  attend  the  conventions  and  press 
upon  men  their  great  privilege  and  duty  to  help 
in  evangelizing  the  world.  He  was  on  a  trip 
around  the  world  to  participate  in  special  cam- 

187 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

paigns  in  various  fields  in  the  Far  East,  when 
he  was  suddenly  called  to  his  long  home  from 
Shanghai,  China,  in  January,  1914. 

The  men  of  this  spirit  are  not  all  dead  by 
any  means.  A  long  list  could  be  given  of  notable 
instances  of  laymen  now  living  who  are  influenc- 
ing the  whole  world  by  their  lives.  I  will  ven- 
ture to  describe  one  of  these  who  has  been  a 
great  inspiration  to  me,  and  also  to  many  others. 
Why  should  it  always  be  necessary  to  wait  until 
men  have  gone  from  our  sight,  in  order  to  hold 
them  up  as  inspiring  object  lessons  of  obedience 
and  faith? 

A  few  years  ago  the  Lord  began  to  search 
the  heart  of  a  successful  young  business  man  in 
the  Central  West  with  questions  about  his  life, 
and  his  growing  love  of  money,  and  his  neglect 
of  personal  effort  for  the  salvation  of  others. 
The  man  had  already  found  himself  in  business 
and  knew  how  to  make  money  rapidly.  He  had 
capacity  for  management  and  courage  to  under- 
take big  new  things,  and  poise  and  perseverance 
to  carry  them  through  to  proved  success.  When 
only  at  middle-life  with  his  best  business  years 
ahead  of  him,  an  unusual  missionary  conviction 
got  hold  of  him. 

One  day  when  he  came  home,  his  wife  told 
him  that  their  little  boy  had  asked  her  a  peculiar 
question  which  she  had  not  been  able  to  answer. 
And  she  wanted  his  help  in  answering  it.  The 
question  was  this:     "Why  don't  you  and  father 

188 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

and  I  go  as  missionaries?"  They  sat  up  long 
into  the  night  trying  to  find  the  answer.  And 
they  finally  decided  that  there  was  no  answer. 

And  so  they  went.  They  bought  a  trunk  full 
of  missionary  books,  and  tickets  around  the 
world,  and  started  out  to  see  where  they  could 
fit  into  the  great  world-enterprise.  Before  leav- 
ing home  they  made  it  a  matter  of  record,  that 
if  the  Lord  would  show  them  a  place  on  the  mis- 
sion field  itself  where  he  wanted  them,  they 
would  remain  there.  But  if  not,  they  would  come 
back  and  live  here  at  home  in  the  same  spirit  of 
obedience  to  Christ  as  if  they  had  stayed  at  the 
battle  front. 

No  clear  opening  came  for  them  on  the  mis- 
sion fields.  But  in  obedience  to  their  determina- 
tion, when  they  returned,  they  sold  their  beauti- 
ful home,  and  began  to  seek  some  relation  to 
the  organized  missionary  agencies  that  would 
enable  them  to  fulfill  their  purpose. 

In  spite  of  discouragements  which  many 
a  man  would  have  concluded  were  meant  by  God 
to  send  him  back  into  business,  his  faith  held. 
The  way  of  service  opened,  and  he  has 
been  out  at  work  with  abundant  evidence 
of  the  divine  inworking.  He  has  turned  over  his 
extensive  business  to  managers,  so  that  he  gives 
only  his  summer  vacations  to  it.  The  other  nine 
or  ten  months  of  the  year  he  is  as  busy  planning 
and  executing  great  things  for  the  world-wide 
extension  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  as  any  ordained 

189 


MISSIONS    AND    LEADERSHIP 

minister  or  board  secretary.  And  God  is  using 
him  to  bring  inspiration  and  benediction  to  thou- 
sands of  men  in  all  the  churches. 

One  of  the  most  suggestive  and  challenging 
life  stories  that  has  come  in  our  day  from  the 
pen  of  a  layman  has  been  written  by  him  under 
the  title,  "The  Confessions  of  a  Business  Man." 
No  better  brief  piece  of  literature  exists  to  set 
laymen  to  thinking  about  their  obligations  to  God 
and  to  the  world. 

Perhaps  this  man  might  have  earned 
a  million  dollars  or  more,  if  he  had  stayed 
in  business.  If  he  had  made  a  million  and 
given  it  all  to  the  missionary  cause,  it  would  have 
been  a  small  gift  compared  to  the  one  he  has  al- 
ready made  in  the  giving  of  himself.  And  be- 
cause he  has  been  willing  to  obey  God,  even  in 
this  unusual  and  striking  manner,  it  would  seem 
that  God  has  been  able  to  employ  him  in  a  way 
that  very  few  other  laymen  in  our  generation 
have  been  used. 

I  close  these  lectures  with  the  two  thoughts 
with  which  I  opened  them,  the  two  central  facts 
around  which  every  Christian  should  build  his 
life  :— 

1.  The  world-field  is  the  only  field. 

2.  The  Great  Commission  is  the  only  com- 
mission. 

To  meet  humanity's  unspeakable  need,  and 
heal  its  mortal  wounds,  the  Spirit  of  God  today 
is  calling  to  every  loyal  disciple  of  Christ,  saying, 

190 


PERSONAL  SERVICE 

"Whom  shall  I  send?  And  who  will  go  for  us?" 
The  only  answer  that  can  worthily  meet  the 
challenge  is  for  each  blood-bought  child  of  God 
to  answer:     ''Here  am  I;  send  me." 

Unwithholding  and  unconditional  acceptance 
of  God's  plan  and  will  by  each  one  of  us  will  in- 
evitably open  up  to  us  the  highest  and  largest 
service  and  satisfaction  conceivable  by  the  mind 
of  man  and  made  possible  by  the  infinite  wis- 
dom and  love  of  God. 

Laid  on  Thy  altar,  O  my  Lord  Divine, 
Accept  this  gift  today,  for  Jesus'  sake; 
I  have  no  jewels  to  adorn  Thy  shrine. 
Nor  any  world-famed  sacrifice  to  make. 
But  here   I  bring  within  my  trembling  hand 
This  will  of  mine — a  thing  that  seemeth  small, 
But  Thou  alone,  0  Lord,  canst  understand, 
How,  when  I  yield  Thee  this, — I  yield  my  all. 

Hidden  therein   Thy  searching  gaze  can   see 
Struggles  of  passions,  visions  of  delight. 
All  that  I  have,  or  am,  or  fain  would  be, — 
Deep  loves,  fond  hopes,  and  longings  infinite. 
It   hath   been    wet   with   tears,    and    dimmed    with    sighs, 
Clenched  in  my  grasp  till  beauty  hath   it  none; 
Now  from   Thy   footstool,   where  it  vanquished   lies. 
The  prayer  ascendeth, — May   Thy  will  be  done! 

Take  it,   0   Father,   ere  my  courage  fail. 
And  merge  it  so  in  Thine  own  will  that  even 
If,  in   some  desperate   hour  my  cries  prevail 
And  Thou  give  back  my  gift,  it  may  have  been 
So  changed,   so  purified,   so  fair  have  grown. 
So  one  with  Thee,  so  filled  with  peace  Divine, 
I  may  not  know,  or  feel  it  as  my  own. 
But  gaining  back  my  will  may  find  it  Thine. 

191 


APPENDIX 
List  of  Missionary  Periodicals  Recommended 

1.  The  Missionary  Magazine  of  Your  Own  Church. 

2.  The   Missionary   Review  of  the   World.      $2.50   a 

year.      Funk  and  Wagnalls,  New  York. 

3.  Men   and    Missions.       50    cents   a   year.       Laymen's 

Missionary  Movement,  1   Madison  Ave.,  N.  Y. 

4.  Everyland,  Magazine  for  Boys  and  Girls.      75  cents 

a  year.  Missionary  Education  Movement,  156 
Fifth  Ave.,  New  York. 

5.  International  Review  of  Missions.      $2.00  a  year. 

Missionary  Education  Movement,  156  Fifth  Ave., 
New  York. 

6.  The   Moslem    World.      $1.00   a   year.      Fleming   H. 

Revell  Co.,  156  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York. 

Pamphlets  Recommended 

1.  Why   I   Am   Glad   I    Stopped   Getting   Rich.      The 

Confessions  of  a  Business  Man.  5  cents  a  copy. 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  1  Madison  Ave., 
New  York. 

2.  The    Life    That    Wins,    by    Charles    G.    Trumbull. - 

2  cents  a  copy,  20  cents  a  dozen.  Sunday  School 
Times  Co.,  Philadelphia. 

3.  The   Price   of   Leadership,   by    Dr.    S.    M.    Zwemer. 

5  cents  a  copy.  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  25 
Madison  Ave.,  New  York. 


192 


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